The New Uzumaki Clan
by SarniePolla
Summary: No one survived the massacre, or so the village thought. Sasuke and Naruto are both living on the same street, though Sasuke doesn’t have a house. So Naruto invites him to live in his place.
1. chapter 1

Heh, Naruto thought, I don't care if they don't want me in the academy, they're gonna get me one way or another. Then I'll become hokage, believe it! Naruto had been about to register for the academy since he turned six in a couple of months. Normally it would be the kid's mom or dad that took care of it, and Naruto didn't have any parents.

The old man had tried to explain to the ninja why he should be in the academy. He'd said something about keeping an eye on him, Naruto just guessed that he was talking about all the tricks he'd pulled so far. Wait a second. If the old man thinks I can get into the academy by pulling off a bunch of pranks, then I should go crazy…er. He thought, adding the er as an afterthought.

He raced down the street, dodging a bunch of people along the way. The brightly colored signs went by him in a blur, and soon he was in a dirtier part of the village. This place looked as if it hadn't been lived in for a couple of years. Some of the windows in the buildings were shattered, and other doors had yellow police tape on them.

Naruto stopped in front of one of said doors, and grinned as he looked at the warning in front of him. He'd put the tape on his door a couple months ago, and people had stopped coming in and taking his stuff. He'd also started hiding his more valuable items, like his ramen, under one of the less-loose floorboards. Plastic trash bags were on the windows, but they were just there because the place was really drafty, he still slept with an orange hoodie on.

Once inside, he raced to the secret compartment he accidentally had made, and looked at what weapons he had available. Marbles? Nah, I've used those at least twice now. More graffiti? Maybe. His eyes suddenly caught on something, and he knew just what he was going to do.

Sasuke was getting kinda hungry. He'd not been able to get anything from the market today, and was now hanging out in his camp in trashy downtown. He didn't think anybody lived near this part of the village. He'd only ever seen a few ninja walking around, and they were even more drunk than that one guy he had seen in green spandex, running around, calling himself the blue beast of Konoha. Whatever that meant.

He was nodding off when he heard footsteps coming. The person was practically stomping, so Sasuke assumed it was another off-duty ninja. Then he heard muttering. He couldn't quite make it out, but it sounded like somebody was planning a trap. He was about to leave when the voice got a bit closer. He was a bit surprised, it sounded like a little kid.

Looking out, Sasuke saw another kid about his age going into one of the run down houses. Huh, Sasuke thought, never seen him around. He decided to go check it out. He left the camp he had made a couple months before and walked over. Looking at the building, Sasuke thought the kid could be a squatter. The place was trashed, with everything that would deter a person covering it, and then some. He could hear someone, likely the kid, banging around in the house.

Sasuke knocked, and all sounds coming from the house immediately quieted. He was about to walk away when someone cautiously opened the door. A head full of messy blonde hair peeked around the other side. "Hey," the kid said. "Sorry not to open the door earlier, but I wasn't sure if you were safe or not." Sasuke thought that was smart. He had to say that the guy had some survival skills. The inside of the house looked far more livable than the outside. Sasuke was willing to give the kid the benefit of the doubt and say that it was meant to be a disguise.

"Hey," Sasuke said back. "I was uhh, well, living down in that corner there. I was wondering what you were doing here." Sasuke wasn't going to tell him what he was doing in the trashy neighborhood, but he felt that the kid would trust him more if he gave him some trust. "Well, I live here," he said back. "I'm Naruto. Nice to meet you. Wanna come in? I think it's a bit better than out here," Naruto said in what Sasuke hoped was a joking tone. He wasn't really used to hearing jokes though, so he couldn't be sure. "Alright. Thanks."

Naruto opened the door and let Sasuke through. "I'm Sasuke," he said as Naruto led him into what he thought was the living room. "You hungry?" Naruto asked. Sasuke opened his mouth to respond, but Naruto had already moved to a loose part of the floor. Sasuke watched cautiously, worried that Naruto might have weapons stashed in there, but he just pulled out a couple instant ramen. "Gotta keep my good stuff hidden," Naruto said with a sneaky grin. Sasuke couldn't help but roll his eyes at him. Naruto motioned to a table with a few chairs in the middle of the room, and Sasuke sat down. He didn't really like ramen, but he felt like he would insult Naruto; he'd seen in that small cubby under the floor, and it was chock full of ramen. And on the other hand, he was really hungry and didn't have the money to pay for anything.

Three minutes later, Sasuke was eating ramen at the table. Naruto was eating too, but he looked more like he was breathing it in. "So," Naruto asked. "What are you doing here? I'm usually the only sober person you see in this place." Sasuke shrugged, somewhat uncomfortably, though Naruto didn't seem to notice. "I don't really have a family," he said at last. Nobody knew that a single Uchiha had survived the massacre. He'd left the compound before anyone could find him. He didn't use his last name, and no one outside the compound had ever had a good look at his face, so he hoped that no one would recognize him.

"Really?" Naruto said brightening. "I mean, that's awful of course," he amended, "but I don't have a family either. Never did. Wanna live here?" The question was sprung so suddenly that for a minute Sasuke couldn't answer. Then he slowly nodded his head. Naruto laughed and fell out of his chair."Dobe," Sasuke said, "you'd better be careful." He was smirking as Naruto got off the ground, rubbing his head. "Hey, Teme! I don't see you trying to become a ninja!"

"You want to be a shinobi?" Sasuke asked, perplexed and hopeful at the same time (though he didn't let Naruto know).

"Yea!" He answered, pumping his fist into the air. "I'm gonna be the best, then I'll be hokage, and everyone will like me and not trash my house and stuff!" Sasuke was happy that Naruto wanted to be a ninja. Maybe then he had a chance of getting into the academy himself without people finding out who he was.

"Well," Sasuke said, smirking again. "You're going to have to work on your balance if you want that to work out for you." Naruto indignantly pointed a finger at him. "And you think you could do better?" he challenged. "Actually, I know I can." Naruto looked even more mad, before an idea came across his face. "Then you've gotta teach me! I've gotta get into the academy as soon as possible! They're about to stop letting kids get in! Hey, how do you know stuff anyway?" Sasuke nearly let it slip, but then he amended himself. "I watched the students practicing everyone once in a while."

Naruto nodded, appeased with the answer. Sasuke let out a mental sigh of relief. This just may work, he thought to himself. Even if he is a big Dobe.


	2. Chapter Two

The two stayed up late. Sasuke tried to teach Naruto some basics, but they mostly ended up arguing. In the end, both were bruised from the minor fight they'd had. Sasuke had won, but not easily. Naruto was just impossible to keep down. Ha! He thought. Sasuke knows a whole bunch of ninja stuff, and I still almost beat him. How's that for kage level!

Naruto was too excited about finally having a friend, and almost winning the fight, to be tired, but Sasuke looked exhausted. "Hey, Teme! There's a bedroom this way." Naruto practically ran down the hall, while Sasuke trudged sleepily behind.

"Here you go!" Naruto said happily as he showed Sasuke the room. He knew there was nothing wrong with the room, but he couldn't help but add one last comment. "If you're careful, then the bed bugs won't bite you as much as they usually would." He looked over to see Sasuke's reaction, but he was already asleep on the bed.

Naruto was about to go to sleep himself when he heard a big crash downstairs. It took him a couple seconds to realize that it was just someone banging on the door. He was about to let it go as another drunk idiot, but he went to check. Sasuke had knocked on the door earlier, and now they were friends, so maybe this person would be nice too.

He was wrong. And really wrong. "What the heck were you thinking?" the ninja in front of him asked. Naruto laughed, though inside he was kinda sorry for what he did. Well, then again, not really. He stood there and waited for the man with the flack jacket in front of him to finish his rant.

"Really, though," the guy went on in an exasperated tone, "did you really have to paint Hiashi's room bright pink? He's the head of the Hyuuga Clan! I'm still not even sure how you got in there!"

Naruto was tired now, and he had enough of adults yelling at him in the morning. The night was supposed to be his time. He almost laughed when he saw the ninja's arms flapping around to illustrate his point. The guy seemed so absorbed in his rant that Naruto thought he may not notice if he left. He chuckled and decided to test it out.

Naruto turned and quietly walked away, and went up the stairs to the room that he hoped Sasuke would be staying in from now on. Naruto thought the ninja down in the door was a lot nicer than the others he'd met. When he thought about it, the ninja actually looked a lot like the teacher that he had went to see that day to send in his papers for the academy. His plan may actually have been working.

Getting into the Hyuuga's place hadn't been the hard part. The hard part had been getting out. He was sure he was caught when he heard somebody coming down the hallway he was in. There wasn't really any easy way out, so he just stuck as close to the wall as he could, and hoped that the person wouldn't notice him.

The person had noticed him. He didn't know it until he heard her stifle a laugh that had been about to escape. As usual, he forgot all about the danger and looked at the person beside him. She was a girl about his age.

"What are you doing?" He thought that she sounded shy. "Getting out." Naruto replied. "Or at least trying to," he mumbled to himself. This time the girl didn't try to hide the little laugh that she felt. "You're going the wrong way. The way out is through that door," she said, pointing at a door that he hadn't seen earlier. "My name's Naruto! Nice to meet you. Wanna be friends."

The girl looked nervous. She started playing with her fingers, and her head started to dip a little. She actually looked small in the large hallway now that he thought of it, and alone.

"Th-that would b-be nice." Naruto smiles happily. That makes two friends, he thought to himself.

"M-my n-n-names Hinata." She stuttered a lot. He thought she was really shy. He didn't want his new friend to be shy, though. He wanted her to be happy and have fun. Maybe she would help him pull pranks. Naruto got an idea…

Now, back in his house, Naruto walked over to wake Sasuke up. He couldn't find Sasuke though. He looked around, starting to panic. He didn't want to lose his new friend, and he was worried that he may have left him to live in his house by himself again. His big empty house.

Naruto was turned around and started heading to the door, his head hanging in defeat, when Sasuke walked through the same door he was about to. He looked tired, and annoyed. Really, really annoyed.

"Who's the stupid idiot downstairs? Doesn't he realize that it's three in the morning?" Sasuke looked like he was about to go tell at the ninja, but that would ruin Naruto's plan.

"Hey, wait a minute Teme! I've got a plan. We're getting in the academy." Sasuke looked like he doubted it, which annoyed Naruto to no end, but he didn't disagree. "Come on," he said, "I've got a friend waiting outside. She's going to help us get in without being seen." Sasuke gave him a dubious look. "Well," he said finally. "If your wanting to get through someplace without being seen, then you'll also need someone who's good at plans and technicals," here he smirked. "I know someone who would be able to help us on that front."

Sasuke had to admit, he didn't think the Dobe was serious when he said he had a plan. But then they went outside, through the window at the back of the house since the weird ninja was still at the door. He'd recognized the shinobi as Iruka Umino, one of the academy teachers. He was one of the more tolerant instructors, though a bit on the eccentric and idealistic side. He had been one of the few teachers who had been willing to let Naruto join the academy, though Sasuke didn't know that.

When they got outside, Sasuke actual jumped in surprise. Standing in front of him was the Hyuuga heiress, Hinata Hyuuga. When Naruto said he had someone who could make sure they weren't found, he was not at all expecting a byakugan wielder. He had to admit, he was impressed. But he wouldn't admit that to Naruto. Hinata looked over at him curiously.

Darn it, Sasuke thought. What it if she recognizes me? Our clans were probably the biggest rivals in Konoha. I am not going to be stuck living in the haunted compound. Luckily for Sasuke, Hinata had no clue who he was. After a quick briefing, Hinata was introduced to Sasuke, and all of them knew what Naruto's great scheme was. It was actually a stupid idea, and all present knew it. They didn't care though. This was the first time any of them had had friends, and they were happy just to be having fun for once.

"Before we do this, we need to get our last member."

Sakura Haruno had not been having a good day. The stupid bullies had made fun of her again. She comforted herself in the knowledge that she was smarter than them. Even if they were prettier. And richer. And didn't have huge foreheads.

She let out a sigh as she began her walk home.

She sniffled a little as she walked. Her eyes glaring, she wiped her tears away, furious at herself. If I keep acting like a crying baby, then they'll have every reason to beat me up! Stupid Ami, she thought to herself. If she didn't have her stupid gang, then I would be able to beat her in a second. Less than that probably.

She continued along the nearly empty road for another five minutes before she saw three people coming towards her. She was worried about mugging for a couple seconds until she saw that it was just other kids. Taking another look, she decided to keep on her guard. One of the kids was Naruto Uzumaki, and another looked like a guy that had been living on the streets for a couple of months. The girl looked okay, and Sakura would have trusted her, if she hadn't first seen her in such odd company.

She was hoping to just walk past them and go home, but then she saw Naruto talk to the homeless kid while pointing at her. The homeless boy nodded, and she felt her pulse start to go faster. She really was not having a good day.

Just before she decided to run, the trio caught up with her. She stood still and stared at the, trying to find out who the dangerous he of the group was. She was still trying to figure out which one was the most evil, so that why what happened next took her by surprise.

Naruto cheerfully bounced up to her, with a smile so big that it was borderline comical. "Hiya Sakura! Sasuke here said you're super smart, and we really need your help with a prank." While her cheeks flushed a light pink with the praise, her brain followed the words.

"Why would I help you guys pull a prank? I'm trying to get into the academy, and this definitely won't look good for me." She was trying so hard to find a place that she would fit in. Her parents were never around, and all the other girls were always picking on her. Her only chance was to be put in a genin squad and make friends there.

"But this prank is how we're all going to get in!" Naruto continued, oblivious to her inner monologuing. "Old Man said that he needed to keep an eye on me for all the pranks I've pulled, so if I can get a big prank on him and the academy teachers then they would have to let us all in!"

Sakura thought it sounded like a stupid plan. And she didn't even know what the prank was. But that day she had been made fun of and ridiculed. The academy also wouldn't accept her without payment, and she knew her parents wouldn't care enough about what she wanted to do to pay for school. "I'm in," she said, before she could change her mind.

The four of them walked down the street with purpose, though nobody saw them. If they had, they probably would have wondered why a bunch of five year-olds were out this late at night without parents. They didn't care though, they were on a mission.

"Everybody remembers the plan, right?" Naruto asked for the fifth time. Sasuke scoffed.

"Naruto, if you ask that one more time, I'm quitting. The only reason you were made leader was because this was your idea. We all remember the plan."

Naruto grumbled a little bit, but before they could start an argument, they were at the academy. All four of them turned to look at each other. Hinata took a deep breath. It's now or never, she thought strongly. Her face became hard with true decision. I'll make it into the academy, even if the rest of the clan thinks I'm worthless.

They split into groups of two. One group, Naruto and Sasuke, would head for the hokage's tower. The other two, Sakura and Hinata, would get into the headmasters office and let loose their plan. They wished each other luck, then went in different directions.

Hinata was worried about being caught. She didn't trust her byakugan. It was what she was the best at, but that wasn't saying much in her mind. She kept it activates though, and at one point she saved them from getting caught by a teacher that got up to go to the restroom.

She thought it a bit odd that the instructors lived at the school, but then again it was a place they could live for free. Saving your the money instead of paying for an apartment would really add up over time, she figured.

Their target was the headmaster's office, at the other side of the school from the entrance. They had debated for a couple of seconds climbing through the window, but then decided that would be too risky. They didn't want to break their legs or something trying to climb a building.

They walked on down the dark hallway. Without the lights on, and in the middle of the night, the school could almost be called haunted. Many of the floorboards creaked, and branches from trees outside rattled against the windows in the wind. Hinata's byakugan helped her to see, but it also gave everything an eerie blue glow.

The made it through without any problems, and stopped in front of the door to the office. Sakura looked over at her, an almost evil grin on her face. Hinata smiles back nervously, motioning to the door. "H-how d-do we get i-in?" She whispered.

Sakura didn't answer, she just pulled a small clip out of her hair. She put her finger to her lips, then motioned for Hinata to keep watch. After about two anxious minutes they were inside. They set about their work, enjoying it in

all its cruelty.

Sasuke and Naruto's journey was not as easy, which may have been partly due to their silent bickering. Naruto swore that he knew the way to the hokage's office, but then he got lost after taking a wrong turn. Sasuke glared at him for getting them lost. People were always working in the tower, so the sooner they got out of there, the better. If they could find the way out, that was. Sasuke glared at Naruto one more time, for good measure, though he wasn't looking. Naruto felt he glare on the back of his neck, and shivered.

He had to focus. If Naruto couldn't find the way, then he had to. He thought back to his old house, feeling a sharp pain of regret as he did so. The main room where his dad worked was the easiest to defend; near the middle so he would be surrounded by loyal shinobi, but also with only one door so that you could only have one entry point. Then he thought of all the secret tunnels he'd used when he was little. One of them had led into his father's office. The tower looked sort of like his old house, so maybe there were secret tunnels there too.

As he went over, knocking on the walls, Naruto looked at him like he'd lost his mind. "Teme," he asked, sounding almost worried, "what on earth are you doing?"

"Shhh!" Sasuke hushed him quickly. He thought he'd heard a hollow spot. He went back over to the area. Sure enough, when he tapped it, a resounding hollow sound echoed throughout the room.

Naruto looked over, curious. Sasuke couldn't help the small, smug smirk that he sent the Dobe. Running his fingers along the outer edges of the wall, he found the handle and gently pulled it out of place.

The door opened soundlessly, cold air emitting from its entrance, indicating a long time since its last use. They looked over at each other. Naruto mouthed the word "cool". Both boys stepped inside, hoping this would help them find the hokage's office easier.

It took them about thirty minutes to figure out which way they wanted to go, then another ten to get there. They stepped out into the room on the top of the tower, and set about to get their job done.

The next day, Iruka went into the hokage's office, hoping to get the matter with Hiashi settled once and for all. He walked into the room and saw the hokage sitting at his desk as usual.

"Lord Hokage," he started calmly. "I think we need to do something about Naruto." When Sarutobi failed to respond, merely watching him, Iruka continued. "Hiashi himself has become a target of one of his many pranks. I must admit that I was not enjoying being on the receiving end of his anger. Not to mention, no one has seen the Hyuuga heiress since yesterday afternoon."

Sarutobi took his cigarette and snuffed out the flame on the end. He inhaled slowly, looking as if he were in deep thought. "I believe," he finally said, "that Naruto has also made himself a group. Someone reported seeing him and three other children walking outside last night at a late hour. I shall make a decision on what to do before the day is over, Iruka. I shall also try to calm Hiashi down and send a squad to find his daughter. Until that time, continue teaching your class."

Iruka bowed respectfully and went to leave. "Lord Hokage," he said, turning back at the door, "I still hold the belief that he should be at the academy. I may be able to help control him. And maybe the other three that were with him as well."

After Iruka closed the door, Sasuke ended his transformation jutsu. Naruto got out from underneath the desk. "I'm glad that the Hokage likes to keep his vacations secret." Sasuke nodded in agreement.

"Now to find the recommendation papers for academy students."

Sakura has been enjoying herself. Well, she had been enjoying being the headmaster. She was just about to call Hinata out from under the desk when Mizuki walked in. She, in the last hour alone, had decided that Mizuki was worthless, annoying, and conniving. She decided to send a statement to the "Hokage" that the teacher should have a background search. "Headmaster," Mizuki said bowing. "I've got four recommendation letters for you from the Hokage concerning potential students."

Sakura beamed on the inside. "Thank you Mizuki. You can stay for a response, I doubt his will take long."

"Of course," he said. Once he gave her the letters, she looked them over. She didn't need make sure that the Hokage had sent them, since the writing was obviously that of a child's, albeit a very skilled child. She checked to make sure that all the answers were worded correctly and in the right place, then handed them back to Mizuki.

"You can let the Hokage know that the last four open positions in our class have been filled."


	3. Chapter 3

Iruka walked into his class and started to take roll-call. The first day of school had been uneventful, he'd been able to get ready and meet with the students parents with no problem. As he called out the kids names, he was surprised by the amount of them who belonged to the large clans that made up a good portion of Konoha's fighting force.

Names like Shikamaru Nara, Kiba Inuzuka, and Ino Yamanaka all sort of jumped of the page towards him. The only clan missing a representative was the Uchiha. He knew that they wouldn't have anybody with that last name anymore.

He stopped for a minute when he reached the bottom. Naruto Uzumaki was listed, his name being handwritten. Three other names came below it. Sakura Haruno, Hinata Hyuuga, and Sasuke.

He smiled to himself, glad that Naruto had not only managed to become a student at the academy, but also happened to make some friends along the way.

He was surprised to see Hinata and Sakura's names on there. He figured the Hinata would be homeschooled, since she was the heiress. And everyone, shinobi and civilian alike, knew the Haruno's dislike of ninja.

He processed all of this in a few seconds, then continued taking attendance with his even more than his usual enthusiasm.

The first day was just an introduction, like it was in all the civilian schools. The students got to stand up, share their names and one thing they really liked. He made sure to pay close attention to what the last four students said they liked.

Sakura Haruno said she liked being in charge. He found this odd, but to Sakura, who's been the academy headmaster for a day, was already missing the feeling of telling people what to do. She'd even managed to make some headway into the large pile of paperwork that was on the desk.

Hinata Hyuuga said she enjoyed spending time with the people she cared about. Iruka was once again surprised. The Hyuuga clan wasn't exactly known for being the loving family type. Then again, the girl was so quiet and shy that he'd had to ask what she'd said twice, so maybe one clan member going against traditional beliefs wasn't all that odd.

He was scared to even ask what Sasuke liked. The kid hadn't said a word to anybody as he walked in, and in case anyone tried to come over (which they didn't) he sent everyone in the room a death glare at least once. When Iruka has asked him what he liked, however, he'd merely replied with an "I don't know".

Naruto was the only one he was able to predict correctly. The little blonde had stood up with a large smile plastered across his face and said, "Ramen! Anyone who serves me ramen! Anyone who cooks me ramen! Oh, and my friends." Iruka was sure the last part was left for the end as a joke. He knew Naruto cared for the people he liked more than he cared about himself.

The group of four were becoming fast friends, unless, he thought, that they had been friends for a while. He knew that wasn't the case though. If Naruto has gotten friends any earlier than three days ago, the whole village would know it. He was just a loud child.

The four of them ate lunch together, and whispered a lot during the day. Well, Hinata talked, Naruto brought it down to a normal volume, Sakura shook her head, and Sasuke completely removed himself from any and all conversation.

The next day was not as easy as the first. It was the day that all the academy teachers tested their students' strength, agility, and chakra control. Not to mention their intelligence. Unless the child was smart, they would think they were all playing games until the very end, when target practice and sparring came.

Iruka started them all off on a shogi tournament. Sakura and Shikamaru were the ones in the final round. Iruka expected the Nara to be more laid back, but just like his father, he jumped at the opportunity to play a game of wits. He one against Sakura, however it wasn't as easily as he'd beaten the others. Naruto was the first to lose, but Iruka thought it was because he was too impatient to learn how to actually play the game. Hinata lost when she got to her third opponent. Sasuke did participate, though not at the level that Iruka believed he could.

Next came a little P.E. Kiba Inuzuka was obviously the best at this area, being a member of the Inuzuka clan. Naruto was the second, mostly due his inability to stay down. Sakura and Hinata were near the bottom, but that was understandable. Sasuke was about a dead average. Again, Iruka found himself wondering if the kid was trying his best.

Now came reaction tests. The kids all got to play catch with eggs. Iruka honestly didn't see the point in not just telling the students that they were being tested, they were going to end up being told afterward anyway. Maybe it had something to with kids doing better when they were competing for an unknown goal. They had all been promised a prize at the end, after all. It was just a piece of candy.

Naruto and Sasuke got paired up. Hinata and Sakura picked each other as well. He tried to tell himself that he wasn't following the four's progress specifically. Pretty much everyone dropped their eggs almost immediately. Choji and Shikamaru made it pretty far. They were able to pass back and forth between each other about six times. This was because of their friendship. Iruka knee they trusted each other and were far less nervous.

Sasuke and Naruto were able to pass the egg twelve times between each other. He thought they would do bad, but they were reacting subconsciously to catch the egg. They couldn't do bad if they wanted to. Naruto has probably gotten used to catching things because people were always throwing things at him. He really didn't know what to think of Sasuke.

They ate lunch together, and then had a thirty minute break because they would all be running very soon. This was the last exercise of the day, and everyone seemed to work really hard to be the best. It was a race, and a very long one. They hard to run eight laps around the track. Being little kids, it probably seemed like a lot. In the end, everyone but Kira, Naruto, and Sasuke gave up halfway to the end. The last three standing all tied for first place. In the end, everyone got a piece of candy.

At the end of the day, Iruka was happy for the group, but also a bit confused. They acted as if they had been friends forever (again with the exception of Sasuke, though he thought the kid liked the others more than he let on). He didn't know if their personalities just blended together so well, or if they had come together for some other reason. Whatever the cause, it looked as they would remain friends for a very long time.

Hey, sorry this chapter's boring! I just needed a little intro before I could get to the next phase of the story. Next chapter _will_ be better, I promise! I really want to thank you guys for favoriting and following my story so much!

~SarniePolla


	4. Chapter Four

"I want to go get ramen!"

"Too bad, ramens trash. We're getting sushi."

"Don't you dare trash talk my ramen!"

"How else am I supposed to talk about it if it's trash?"

Naruto really wanted to go to Ichiraku's. He hadn't realized that inviting Sasuke to live with him meant that he didn't get to eat ramen every day. That had been three weeks ago.

"I'm not getting a healthy amount of ramen each day! Everyone needs it to stay alive!"

Sasuke went back to his homework. Naruto pouted. He got the last word and Sasuke still managed to win the argument somehow!

"It's just a bunch of gross, uncooked fish," he muttered, arms crossed. They heard a knock on the door. Knowing who it was, Sasuke got up and opened the door, leaving Naruto to fall on the couch and pout some more. Hinata and Sakura stepped in, each carrying a bundle of entertainment in their arms. Sakura brought board games, and Hinata brought dulled kunai and shuriken for them to practice with.

Naruto jumped up upon seeing the girls and ran towards them.

"You guys know what's right, right? Ramen is essential to life!" He shouted, pointing at them. Sakura sighed and shook her head.

"Really, this again? Alright, we're going to have to make a schedule to decide what you guys eat. There's no other solution."

Naruto went back to pouting, and Sasuke just hummed a little. The two girls came in and made themselves at home; setting up their games and working out what they would have for dinner. Sasuke started finishing his homework.

They had fallen into a routine. Naruto would wait for Sasuke to finish his homework, then get the other boy to help him. Sakura and Hinata would come over once they were able to get away from their parents and they would all go out to eat. They got their money from the girls' allowances and Naruto's monthly pay since he didn't live in the orphanage.

"Where are we going to eat?" Naruto asked.

"We're going to go get ramen," Sakura replied. Naruto cheered and ran happily to Sakura to hug her.

"Tomorrow we're getting sushi."

Sasuke smirked when Naruto's grin fell a little. He peeked up quickly though.

"I don't care! We're getting ramen! Take that, Teme!" Sasuke didn't answer.

"Don't worry, Sasuke," Sakura said with a smile. "People put anything on ramen, I'm sure they'll let you have some of the sushi without any noodles." Again, Sasuke didn't answer. He was busy on a question he was having trouble answering.

Looking at it, he realized it shouldn't be that hard. All it said was "why are you training to become a shinobi?". He couldn't answer it though. He'd wanted to become a shinobi so he could work with his brother and his father at the police station, even if all they did was drink coffee.

He hated his brother. He'd killed his entire family, then made him watch it over, and over, and over. Sasuke shuddered at the table where he was working. He had nightmares every night about streets running with blood and corpses littering the village. He wanted to become a shinobi to kill his brother. He'd told him to, and Sasuke wanted revenge. More than anything, he wanted revenge.

But, why did he want revenge? His head jerked up and his eyes widened at the thought. He wanted to kill his brother because he killed their family, of course! His parents always… His parents always what? They ignored him, he realized.

He thought back to when he'd lived in the compound. It had always been Itachi who had helped pack his lunch. It was Itachi that watched over him and helped him train in shinobi techniques. It had been Itachi to see him off to his first day of school. His parents had always been in the background, shadows flitting through the edge of his vision. He couldn't even remember if his mother had ever hugged him.

He thought of his friends. They had been nice to him, like Itachi had. They sat by him at lunch, they asked him what his favorite color was, they asked for help with homework (well, Naruto did). They were kind. He wondered if Itachi would have liked them.

"He looked back down at the question. "Why are you training to become a shinobi?" He didn't know the answer, and he knew he wouldn't find out until later. He decided he would put down some random thing that the teachers would approve of. I'm training to help my family. Maybe one day it would come true.

"Sasuke, hurry up! We're trying to start shogi!"

Five games and ten minutes of a fidgeting Naruto later they were on their way over to Ichiraku's ramen stand. They were all hungry by then, and they were practically running to say hi to the old man and his daughter. They were very nice people.

"Hey, Old Man!" Ichiraku chuckled.

"Ey, Naruto? How's my best paying customer? You bring your friends with you again?" The Old Man sent his eyes over the group before him. They were all little children going to school together. He was happy for Naruto, he'd begun to worry that no one would ever be friends with the poor little kid.

"What do you guys want this time? Oh, and don't worry Sasuke, I've got plenty of sushi. Even if it is a ramen stand." He chuckled again. Sasuke smirked at the man, but it was more a smirk of humor than anything. He really liked the guy. It seemed impossible that Ichiraku could be mean to anyone.

They all say down and orders their dinner. They all knew that they would be there a little longer since Naruto would order so much extra ramen, so they all got comfortable.

"Hey, Hinata," Naruto started. "What's it mean to be the heir to a clan? Everyone always calls you the Hyuuga heiress, but is that a good thing?" Hinata blushed furiously. She may have gotten over her stutter when she was around her friends, but she was still incredibly shy.

"It's just that I'm going to have to lead the clan when my father dies. It's a lot of work. I'm not really sure if it's a good thing or not."

"Well, how do you get a clan? Is everyone in one?"

"No," Sasuke interjected, "to be in a clan means you're part of that family. Most clans have a secret jutsu, or a kekkei genesis that they use. It's like a trademark."

Naruto smiles his giant, Cheshire Cat grin. "We should make a clan! The Uzumaki Clan! I'd be leader of course, since it's my name."

"Hey!" Sakura yelled. "By that logic it could also be the Haruno Clan, and I would be in charge!"

Ichiraku came out with their ramen, and Sasuke's sushi, at that time and they started eating, their conversation momentarily forgotten.

"You know," Naruto said, speaking in between mouthfuls of ramen. "We should make a clan. It'd be fun! We'd be able to go to clan meetings, we'd have our own clan sector, and we would have cool clan logos and symbols!"

The others had already eaten their ramen and were just visiting now. They thought about it a little bit, and they all decided that it would be pretty nice to say they were part of a real shinobi clan.

"We've just got one problem. How are we going to get the Hokage to let us register a new clan, with only four members? We can't exactly say that our parents let us either." Sasuke thought it was a good idea. He missed being able to say he was part of a clan, part of something with other people. He just didn't see how they would do it.

"We got into the academy without parents, we can make a clan if we want!" Naruto was always so excited about everything. Sasuke found it really exhausting sometimes.

"If nothing else," the blonde continued, "we can just say we're a clan. We don't have to actually register." Naruto stopped talking. Somehow, he knew he needed to stop talking and let the others decide if they thought it was a good idea, let the question sink in. Or maybe he was just worried his ramen was getting cold.

Sakura was the first to decide she wanted to do it. Her parents, her entire family, disapproved of anything that had to do with shinobi. As it was, they still thought she was going to a public citizen school. She hadn't told them that she'd made it into the academy. She's always wanted to say she was part of a shinobi family, and this was her big chance. Even if it wasn't official.

Hinata was the next to agree. She was tired of her clan always pushing her, always saying she wasn't good enough or that she wasn't strong enough. They were the ones that had made her so shy. They had made her believe she was worthless. It was pretty much certain that her little sister would become the new heiress, so why should she even try to hold on to her title, a title that she didn't even care about?

Sasuke has wanted to do it since the Dobe had first brought it up. He missed his clan, and he knew they wouldn't be replaced, but he still wanted some sort of a family. He wouldn't let anyone know though, which was why he kept acting so skeptical about the idea. He liked to work on jutsu and train, and he liked to compete with others to be the best. It was just a part of the Uchiha. You had to be the best. And he would make sure that their clan was the best. All four members.

The three looked down at Naruto as he slurped up more ramen. He was already on his twelfth bowl. He had a bit of broth dribbling down his chin, and his manners were practically non-existent.

"Alright, clan leader," Sakura said. "What are we going to do now?"

Naruto had no clue what a clan leader did. He just wanted the clan to be called the Uzumaki Clan. He'd asked Hinata what a leader did, but she hadn't known either. Luckily, and oddly when he thought about it, Sasuke had known what to do. Apparently they needed to make a clan symbol. A crest or something. Naruto wanted it to be a bowl of ramen, Sakura wanted a flower, Hinata was didn't care, and Sasuke made the symbol while they argued.

"What do we want our clan to be about? What's its major power? What's our jutsu, or fighting style?"

Naruto was too busy arguing with Sakura, and the other likewise, to answer. Hinata came over, and she looked at the paper Sasuke was writing on.

"Well, do we want a clan with taijutsu, ninjutsu, or genjutsu? A mix of the three maybe?" They both thought about it for a while. Sasuke knew that they were all different, but he wanted the symbol to represent them.

"What if we made a sort of scale? We want an even amount of different jutsu, so it could be an even scale. And I was thinking that umm," she trailed off, nervous to voice her thoughts. Sasuke was perceptive though, and he knew what she meant.

"You mean that our personalities are all off, but we somehow balance each other out. Is that it?" She nodded quickly, a bit surprised that he was able to find out what she meant so quickly.

"We could make the scale yellow, and the weights red and blue. The yellow would be happiness, the red anger, and the blue sadness." Sasuke didn't need to ask who the blue was, Hinata had a small air of quiet sadness about her at times.

When they were done with the symbol, they moved on to other things. They both knew that they would have to run by what they thought of with the others, but they were starting to have fun. Naruto and Sakura had ended their argument, but had gotten so off topic during said argument that they had completely forgotten about the whole "clan building" project. They were now busy trying to get Naruto's homework done.

Hinata and Sasuke sat in the kitchen and kept working. They were both quiet people, but they both were able to notice little things. It was how they had survived in their old clans, which were full of conspiracies and lies. They communicated well with and without words. When they went on the defining aspects of their clan, they put down a list of things that they thought might work.

"I understand that difference, perseverance (stubbornness), and diligence could be there, but do we really have to put ramen?" Sasuke was tired of the Dobe eating ramen everyday. At first he was okay with it, but when he realized that was all he ate, he started to take measures.

"We go to Ichiraku's at least six times a week, we might as well put it down." Hinata laughed a little at Sasuke's annoyance with the dish.

After a little while, they were able to make a compromise. Sasuke would be able to have genjutsu as a part of the main focuses on their new daily training routine, and Hinata was allowed have ramen. Sakura and Naruto came in a little bit after.

"What are you guys doing," Sakura asked, rubbing her eyes. It was about eleven, and try as she might, she was only six. She got sleepy quick.

"We're working on finishing the clan," Hinata said, smiling. She was proud of what they had accomplished.

"Why'd you start without us?" Naruto asked, a little hurt.

"Relax Dobe. Hinata made sure ramen was a core essential to the thing." Naruto smiled at Hinata. He couldn't be upset when someone made sure to put ramen in something. He just couldn't. Sakura looked over at their papers. She got to the symbol, and looked over at Sasuke and Hinata.

"You guys are actually taking this seriously, aren't you?"

Hinata shrugged. She had wanted to try shrugging at someone for a little while. She'd seen Sasuke do it and she thought it looked cool.

"I like the idea of a new clan," she said. "I'm tired of people in my clan, they're not nice at all." Sasuke couldn't shrug, since Hinata had just done it, so he just started talking.

"Clans are good for all people involved. If your clan has a reputation, people will treat all members accordingly. You have a strong clan, people won't try anything around you. You have a weak clan, and people pick on you just for fun. If we make a good clan, we'll be able to be something."

Naruto's eyes were shining. That sounded a lot like what it would be to be a hokage. He wasn't paying attention to the last part. He heard it, but he didn't like it, so he ignored it.

"We're going to be the best clan ever! Then, we'll all be in the tower. I'll be the Hokage, and you guys will all be super cool anbu!" He punched the air with his fist to accentuate his point.

Sakura and Hinata looked over at each other.

"Naruto, I'm not so certain that that's going to happen over night," Sakura said softly.

"I know! I'm going to train a whole lot and-"

They heard a pounding on the door. Funny, Naruto thought. That sounds sorta familiar.

"NARUTO UZUMAKI!" Iruka thundered from outside. "WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU THINKING?"


	5. Chapter Five

All of them ran to their "secret" window, it couldn't be seen from the door, and peered out. There on the steps was Iruka. His face was cherry red and he was going at the door like it had just insulted his momma.

They looked at each other, Naruto's look a bit more panicked than the others, and tried to decide what to do. It was hard to come up with a complete plan, seeing as how they couldn't talk since the ninja below would here them. They were all trying to figure out what the other was trying to say, when Iruka decided that he had had enough and went up to one of the windows. Fortunately for them, Sasuke was paranoid and had locked all the windows on his first night over.

"What did you do, Dobe?" Sasuke whispered over to him.

"What do you mean? I haven't pulled a prank since our last one."

Sakura's eyes grew wide as she realized what the problem was. They had after all impersonated the Hokage himself while he was on vacation. She still didn't know how Naruto knew that he would be gone, and she probably never would. It couldn't be all that serious, since it was only Iruka there and not the Anbu. But on the other hand, Iruka could have just been a distraction. Whatever it was, they needed to leave undetected.

She glanced at Sasuke, and saw he was thinking along the same lines as her. They each grabbed one of the other two and led them to the basement. They heard Iruka break down the door when they reached the bottom level. It may have seemed like a bad idea, but their basement had a door that connected to the basement of the house beside theirs.

They all hurried along, with Naruto in the lead since he had been living their longest and was the best at getting away with pranks. It was pitch black, but they had made sure a couple weeks ago that the path was clear and they wouldn't trip over anything.

Sakura wondered what the punishment was for impersonating the Hokage. Then he wondered how nobody had noticed that they had been impersonating the Hokage. She had learned the transformation jutsu two hours before they started their plan, how had they not recognized her when she was pretending to be the headmaster.

Maybe someone had and they just wanted to see how far the pranks effects would be felt. She could see Mizuki doing something just to make another person suffer. She had been so deep in thought, that she actually jumped when Hinata tapped her on her shoulder.

"Are you alright? Your parents won't be mad if they find out will they?" Hinata whispered. Sakura felt bad for her friend. Her parents were even worse than her own. They managed to ignore her and make fun of her at the same time. If she were Hinata, she would have gotten fed up and left by now.

"I'll be fine, my parents won't care. The only thing they'll be mad about someone the fact that I'm at the academy." Hinata nodded, and went back to focusing on not tripping in the dark. Finally, they heard Naruto quietly mutter, "we're here".

The four of them emerged in a basement that was far worse off than their own. There was trash everywhere, and they could here something scuttling around under the heeps of filth.

"Someone remind me why we decided to clean the tunnel but not this room." Sakura muttered, more to herself than anything.

"Stop complaining and come on," Sasuke muttered back. They tried their best to stay away from the piles of filth that were rotting in the corners, and everywhere, and made it through the door.

"If this is going to be our clan compound, we need to clean the place up." Sakura said, annoyed.

"But we did clean up the place!" Naruto said incredulously.

"Naruto, I mean the entire street. Do you want everyone in town to think our clan is trash? That's what'll happen if we leave stuff this way."

Naruto's eyes widened and he shut up, probably already thinking of ways to wash out the floor. They had all learned that public appearance was important to Naruto, and they hated to use it against him, but sometimes it had to be done. Like the times that they were swimming in old banana peels and beer bottles to get away from an angry sensei.

Sakura thought she had a way to get them out of trouble. "Hey, guys," she said, once they were all on the first floor and in a far cleaner area, though the place still wasn't ideal. "You know how the Hokage lets all the clans sort out their own problems? Like if one of the Hyuuga did something bad, he would leave it up to the leaders to work on it?"

They all nodded, but she could see they still didn't quite understand her point. "If we become an actual, registered clan, then the Hokage will let us deal with problem within our own clan. That way, we won't have the entire Anbu force after us!" Naruto nodded, his head bobbing up and down excitedly.

"As leader, I would make sure that that we all had a strict punishment. Bedtime at ten for the next two weeks, no ramen for lunch for two days, and training as much as we can!" Sakura almost giggled, she knew Naruto was being fully serious. She just hoped he never realized that normal people did those things every day. Except for the training, that was a Sasuke thing.

Speaking of which, she could see the gears turning in Sasuke's head. He was already working out how they were going to file for a clan. The problem was, they would have to get to the hokage's tower without being caught.

"We can't get caught on the way to the tower," Sakura congratulated herself in her head, "but that sounds like a pretty solid plan. The only thing is, will the Hokage let us make a clan? We need at least three people to do so, and right now, two of us already have families." She'd forgotten about that.

Would she be willing to leave her parents and join a brand new shinobi clan, made entirely of kids she'd met only three weeks ago? She thought of all the times she'd actually seen her parents, which weren't many. They would fight with her, or they would tell her to do something for them. They never acted like real parents, and she never acted like she was their daughter. They may as well have been strangers that had just passed each other on the street and nodded a polite hello.

Her friends, on the other hand, played games with her. They asked her opinion, and they always let her in on their conversations. They genuinely cared about her, and she cared about them. They were there when she needed them, and when she needed some private space, they were more than willing to give it to her. Plus, she thought, Sasuke is kinda cute.

"I'll join the clan." Sakura looked over at Hinata, who had just spoken. The small, black haired girl was looking at them with a small smile set on her face. She looked happier than Sakura ever recalled her being.

"Now wait a minute!" She said. She wasn't going to be left out here! "I wanna join too!" Naruto looked like he was still getting over the shock of both of them saying they wanted to join, so the two girls turned to Sasuke.

"Are you guys sure?" He asked. Sakura thought he looked a little sad, but she couldn't be sure. "You would be leaving your families behind. You wouldn't be able to call your dad "dad" anymore. He'd just be a random stranger you meet at a restaurant. Your siblings would just be classmates, rivals. You could be friends, and you could help them or they could help you, but you wouldn't be able to stay the night in your big brother's room because you were scared." She didn't know where the whole sibling came thing came into play, she'd never had a brother or sister. And her parents were already strangers.

I'm not going to say anything like you guys are too young to make these decisions, because that doesn't mean anything. But you really need to be sure." Neither girl hesitated, they both nodded at him firmly. Sasuke went back to his usual self and shrugged at them. He grabbed Naruto's arm and they all went over to the door that would let them out.

"So here's the plan," Naruto told them hurriedly.

Sakura and Naruto hurried down the streets through the middle of the village. They were hoping that the Anbu would think they would sneak around on the outskirts. Their only chance was that the shinobi would underestimate them because they were kids.

They rounded another corner, and came face to mask with a white dog mask. Both turned around and made to go back the direction they came, and the Dog ran in front of them to block their way. Or, he blocked the clones' paths. Sasuke and Hinata hurried along, hoping that the agent would keep looking for them nearby.

The real Naruto and Sakura were already at the Hokage's tower. One thing about living in a ninja village, there were thousands of secret passages that the observant could find and use. They stood together in the shadows, waiting for Sasuke and Hinata to come back. They were the only two with any real experience in ninja techniques, so they had volunteered to distract Anbu while Naruto and Sakura made their way to the tower.

They'd been waiting about ten minutes when they saw their friends round a corner. Sasuke walked straight toward them.

"Next time, hide in a less obvious place." He told them. His voice sounded smug, but Sakura decided to let it go. They had more pressing matters to attend.

Getting to the Hokage's office was easier this time, since Sasuke and Naruto knew the was from the first time. They made their way quietly through the passages, and came out underneath the Third's desk.

Naruto had come out first, and looked up into the wrinkled, old face of the Honorable Third Hokage. Fortunately for them, that Face was smiling ever so slightly.

"Hey, Jiji!" Naruto said, climbing out and hugging the old man. Sarutobi's smile grew.

"Hello there, Naruto. I must admit, you and your friends have caused quite the stir around here. How did you know I was going on vacation?"

Naruto looked at him and smiled mischievously. "How come you went on vacation the same the academy headmaster did?" Sarutobi chuckled and shook his head.

"Naruto, whatever you're implying, it's not true. I didn't know that miss Kyoki was going on vacation at all."

Naruto pretended to pout a little, then looked up at the man with a hopeful look on his little face.

"Jiji, can I make a clan?" The Hokage sputtered, taken aback. Whatever he was expecting, it obviously hadn't been that.

"Naruto, you need more than one person to make a clan," he said gently.

"I know that! Why do you think we're all here?" The Hokage looked over at Naruto's friends, who up until that time had been standing to the side, quietly watching the exchange.

Sakura stepped forward. "Sir, if I may?" She asked politely. The Hokage smiled a her and nodded. She took it as a cue to continue. "We all have decided that we want to do this. We quite enjoy each other's company, and our personalities seem to compliment each other's. Our own families have done nothing as kind to our lives as the people we all met three weeks ago have." Sarutobi nodded again, and Sakura stopped speaking, though she was done anyway.

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked over at the group in front of him. Hinata Hyuuga, the heiress to a clan that never truly appreciated her. Sakura Haruno, a girl from a family that hated shinobi asking to leave and become a part of a clan. The black haired boy was obviously an Uchiha. He was relieved that Itachi's brother had lived. When he'd disappeared, Sarutobi hadn't been able to keep his promise to poor Itachi. Then there Naruto Uzumaki. Village prankster, academy lay about, and Kyuubi jinchuuriki. The son of Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze, heir to the destroyed Uzumaki Clan and the Fourth Hokage's legacy.

"This Clan is going to be a wild addition…"


	6. Chapter 6

Sakura's parents didn't do so much as lift a finger when they were told that their daughter had disowned them. Hiashi threw a fit, if only to save face, and then went back to his clan. All in all, it was exactly the reaction they had been expecting.

However, they really hadn't expected the Hokage to let them have a clan so easily, but it had happened. The Anbu chasing them that night were actually nonexistent. The Hokage has thought that an angry Iruka would be enough for the kids. The Anbu that Sasuke and Hinata had run into had just been placed on duty there, and tried to stop them because they were worried about two six year olds being out late at night.

They had all gone home that night after filling out the forms necessary to complete the clan registration. True to his word, Naruto had made sure they were all in bed before ten.

The next day, Sakura set up a chore list. She still wanted to clean up all the abandoned houses in their new compound, and she set Naruto to the task. It was probably going to take one person a long time, but she needed Sasuke for help in taking care of their one functioning house. Hinata would go shopping for food and other necessities, while Sakura went out to find jobs. They were going to need a steady income if they wanted this to work.

After making sure her clan members were all working, Naruto more reluctantly than the other two, she set out. She figured that yard work or something would be a good place to start, since it was an easy job. Most people ended up paying for a D rank mission for the task, which could be quite expensive for menial jobs like watering flowers.

She went around to different places, asking if everyone she met if they could use any assistance for a small bit of pay. Nobody said that they needed any help though, and she had to go home empty handed. As she walked back, she saw something that gave her an idea. There was a small lot, next to a small cafe, that was available. Upon closer inspection, she saw that the rent was actually affordable. More than affordable, it was cheap. It was a small space, only big enough for a small stand, but that was all that she needed.

She hadn't spent much time out yet, and she didn't want to return to the others with only a small idea, so she went out to investigate more. The lot was owned by a civilian, someone named Miyu Saito. Sakura memorized the address, then made her way towards what she thought would be Miyu's house. It was not a house.

Miyu lived in an odd sort of castle on the outskirts of town. Its walls spiraled in circles, and the windows were all warped to fit it's odd design. There were doors everywhere, some leading to balconies, some leading to the ground, and some leading out to open air. The house was a multitude of colors as well. There were spots of blue, red, and green, while other colors like purple and yellow created a sort of base. It looked almost beautiful in a crazy, malformed way.

Sakura walked over to one of the doors one the ground level and was about to knock on it when she stopped herself. If I lived in this place, she thought, I'd want someone to knock on one of the doors that didn't go anywhere. She didn't know what made her do it, but she went over to a part of the house that jutted out like a ladder, and started to climb up.

She was panting, though not profusely, by the time she reached a door she thought suitable. Standing on the sturdiest place she found, she knocked on the plain white door. She hadn't waited more than five seconds when the door was swung wide open to reveal a middle aged woman in calico pajamas.

"Well, hello dear!" the woman said. "I'm sorry I'm in my pj's, but I had a late night last night and slept in a little late. No one ever uses this door, which happens to be the correct one if you're wanting in, so I figured I better hurry over to see who it was." Sakura nodded, like it all made sense. It sort of did, she guessed, but with the whole house-calico-pajamas thing, she couldn't be all that sure yet.

She opened her mouth to tell the woman she was looking for Miyu Saito, But was interjected before she even had a chance to breathe.

"Well, kiddo," the woman continued. "You must be tuckered out after that climb up here. Do you like tea? I was making some before I came to answer the door, it should be about done now." Sakura nodded again. She did enjoy tea, and if this was Miyu, then she was going to need the lady to be in a good mood. She didn't see anyone letting a bunch of six year old rent a spot of land.

While Sakura was drinking tea and talking about the lot, Naruto was grumbling. He was busy cleaning out the basement of the house they had escaped through. That, coupled with the fact that he didn't get much sleep last night, put him in a bad mood. He'd had trouble sleeping because every time he closed his eyes, he could almost see Iruka getting ready to lecture them. That had been the Hokage's rule. They got to have their clan, but they had to face Iruka.

Naruto shoveled more of the filth into the giant bag that they would burn later. He'd been at it for two hours, and he wasn't even halfway done! Why did Sasuke get the easy job, anyway? He was always the one who was saying he was better than Naruto at anything. Naruto's belly was itchy then, so he scratched it.

 **Seriously kid?** **You could be doing anything now** , **and you're digging through trash?**

Naruto looked around for the source of the voice. It sounded gravelly, and a bit dark. The way a voice sounded didn't scare Naruto, nor did what the voice said. Naruto judged people by what they did, it was a rule he'd kept since he was three.

"Heh, well, I'm the leader of a clan now, and I gotta do stuff," he said to the empty room. "Even if it's stuff that's completely gross." His words echoed off the walls, and fled out into the room beside him. He wasn't really expecting an answer, so he turned back to the task he had, now with more vigor. He was the leader of a clan now, and he had to do a good job to prove he deserved it.

 **If I'm going to be trapped here** , **you could at least do something interesting**. **Preferably in a less smelly area**.

Naruto tilted his head to the side. He'd been looking at the same patch of garbage each time he'd heard the voice now, and either his mind was playing tricks on him, or that pile of trash had moved as the voice had spoken. Naruto's eyes widened as he realized what had happened.

"THE GARBAGE IS ALIVE!!" Naruto shot out of the room screaming at the top of his lungs.

Hinata was enjoying herself. She hadn't been shopping since her mother had passed, and it reminded her of some good times. While she went through the store, she was able to think about some things.

She was glad she'd left her clan. The air in the homes and streets had always felt stifling, as if all the people's stares had somehow circled around her, trying to smother her. In her new compound, she had only her friends with her, and they were always kind. Sure, Sasuke and Naruto bickered, but she knew it wasn't anything serious. Sakura was a good friend, and it was nice to talk to another girl. She was also commanding, and was very good at controlling the boys when their arguments got too heated.

Hinata knew they would have a lot of challenges in the next coming weeks. They would have to get jobs, and they would all have to work hard to clean up their street, but these, and any other obstacles, didn't bother her. She felt confident in her friends', her clan's, ability to handle whatever life would throw at them.

She smiled as she picked up another container of instant ramen. She was proud of her friends, and of herself. They had all overcome many things. Hinata herself was very different from the shy child that would stutter and blush every time someone said "good day" to her. She was part of the Uzumaki Clan now, and she was brave and strong. She wouldn't let her friends down.

As she was in the checkout, she saw Sakura walk past with a smile on her face. Hinata was the only person in line, so she quickly rushed out and beckoned the pink haired girl over. Together, they carried their bags home, and Hinata listened as Sakura told her what had happened that day.

"Miyu Saito is willing to let us rent her lot for an even lower price than she put on the sign," Sakura summed up. "And we would be able to start a business. The lady was a bit eccentric looking at first, and she definitely is odd, but she's very nice. She said she would even help to fund our company, as long as she had special discount." Sakura's smile was wide, and her cheeks were flushed. Hinata could tell she was happy about the offer. There was only one problem.

"What are we selling?" Hinata asked. Sakura shook her head.

"I don't know yet. It was a great deal though, and I was worried she'd take it back, so I accepted the offer. We'd better have something in a couple of days." Hinata wasn't surprised that Sakura had already accepted. She knew the girl, and Sakura would swoop down on any offer that she could make a profit out of. It usually worked out too, so she wasn't all that worried about how things would turn out.

They came home to an empty apartment, and looked around, trying to figure out where the boys had gone. They found them in the basement Naruto had been cleaning. Both were wearing masks, and were sifting through the piles of filth on the floor. They both looked up when the girls came in, and exchanged a glance. Naruto nodded, then Sasuke nodded, and they both walked out without saying a single word. Sakura raised an eyebrow at Hinata, who just shook her head. Sometimes they knew not to ask.

They are supper in the living room like usual, Hinata sitting on the small stool beside the couch, Naruto and Sakura sitting on said couch, while Sasuke sat in a sort of meditating position in the corner. They didn't have any ramen on their plates, another part of Naruto's punishment, and instead had little onigiris on their plates.

Sakura told them about Miyu's offer, and how she'd accepted. She also told them about how she had no clue what they were going to do. Naruto wasn't worried, and instead was happy they were making such fast progress. Sasuke shrugged, and kept eating his tomato onigiri, which he'd made specially for himself.

"How about a perfume stand?" Naruto suggested. "A bunch of people buy perfume."

"Do you know how to make perfume?" Sakura asked in response.

"No, but-"

"Moving on."

"What about a veggie stand? I'm great at growing things!" Naruto beamed, thinking he'd found the answer. Sakura nodded, she liked the idea.

"We can grow crops year round, what with the weather here. And lots of people like cucumbers and the like. Maybe we could even sell a bit of cooked food. Do you know how to cook, Naruto?" He shook his head.

"Hinata?"

"Sorry, but no. I never really learned anything beyond instant ramen and some onigiri."

Sakura sighed. "I don't have a clue how to, so I guess plants it is. Thing is, we'll have to wait for them to grow. Can we make it that long?" They all thought about the math in their heads, but Sakura finished first.

"We wouldn't make it past the first month. We need an income, and fast. Gardening just isn't going to work."

"You know," Sasuke said from his corner, "You never asked if I could cook."

The three's eyes rose, and they looked at him, surprised.

"When did you learn to cook, Sasuke?"

"I would make supper for my parents and brother because they always got home late. I also made lunch for myself on many occasions." They all decided not to comment on the mention of his family. They could tell it was a topic not to be discussed, even though Sasuke gave no indication of it.

"Alright, then," Sakura said. "We're starting a food stand. What all do you know how to cook, Sasuke?"

By the time they were done writing a menu, they had more than twenty-five dishes. Common foods like yakitori and udon were on there, and a few sweets, like dango, were also present. Sasuke had only learned how to make dango because he knew his brother liked it, he himself didn't care for sweets.

He hadn't realized how much he knew how to cook until they started working. He'd memorized the recipes for everything a long time ago, and didn't even have to try to recall the dishes. They had become second nature. Which was a little disappointing for Sasuke, who would have preferred throwing shuriken and blocking kunai to be second nature instead.

Hinata designed the menus, and the stand where they would be working. Sasuke wrote a list of things they would need, like dishes and ovens. They didn't want to hire anyone, since one they couldn't afford it, and two they wanted it to be something only their clan had. Sakura worked out the math for the cost, and how long it would take to make an income. Naruto would grow all the vegetables they needed, which would take a while, so they also decided to buy some things.

Two days later, they were completely ready to give their plan to Miyu, who was out of her calico pajamas, and instead was wearing a big fur coat. She nodded excitedly during the entire conversation, and they were feeling pretty confident when she dropped a bomb on them.

"How about you make me some of this food? You do have samples, right? I'd love to be able to taste what I'm helping to pay for. You darlings know what I mean?" They didn't have any of the right ingredients, and they didn't have the recipes with them. Sasuke has a simple dish he knew he could make though, as anyone would have the ingredients for it. Or hopefully everyone, this lady was starting to make him question her sanity.

He made some quick ohagi balls. They were sweet and simple, so it didn't take very long. When he was done, there were about six little rice balls sitting on a plate. Miyu clapped in delight, then picked one of them up. She took small, quick bites, and it was kind of odd to watch. In the end, she loved it.

"You little guys are the best cooks I've met! I hope you know other good recipes like this, cause if you do, then you'll be rich in no time." They all nodded politely, stated for a few more minutes to not appear rude, then went out and started to build their stand.

The small food stand was done in about three days. The stores had been reluctant to give a bunch of kids large ovens and knives, but they paid, so the owners couldn't argue. Within the first week they'd made enough money to pay for the two ovens they'd bought. The next week, they had enough to buy new beds. The street where they worked used to be calm, but now there were far more people present.

They couldn't work all day, since they had to go to school, so they opened their shop up in the afternoon and stayed up late.

Their biggest customer was a girl named Anko. She would come in every day or two and the Uzumakis would have to cook at least three pounds of dango. At first Sasuke had been upset that he was cooking dango for someone that wasn't Itachi, but Anko had been so nice to him that he couldn't stay that way for long.

They stayed in this routine for about three years, and it worked wonders. They had become a clan with a real income, and other clans like the Inuzuka and Akimichi were nodding to them on the street. Less people had been picking on Naruto, and less fan girls had been attacking Sasuke since he got the last name Uzumaki. Miyu found a boyfriend one time when she went to have dinner at their food stand.

They were also doing great at the academy. They were the top of their class, and each one of them were the best at something. They were getting bored with what Iruka was teaching, and that lead to a bunch of trouble. Mostly trouble for Iruka, but Kakashi was going to have more than his fair share of headaches as well.

 **Omake** -

Sasuke was busy cleaning their house when he saw Naruto running on the streets, screaming like a little girl. He went outside to see what was wrong, but all he got out of the Dobe was something about "taking trash".

Sighing, he grabbed Naruto by the arm and dragged him back to the basement. He kicked the piles of sludge around, to show Naruto nothing was wrong. The blonde was still staring at the trash like it would suddenly grow eyes.

"Naruto,"Sasuke said, fed up, "the trash isn't going to come to li-"

 **You Bakas really are stupid, you know?**

They both froze. Not wanting to seem scared In front of the other, they each started digging around, trying to find the source of the voice. Sakura and Hinata found them half an hour later, sifting through piles of trash for an invisible man.


	7. Chapter 7

They were all getting bored of the academy. At first it had just been Sasuke, but over time they had all risen to a level where their curriculum was just annoying. Iruka tried to keep them interested, but everything he gave them they finished in a couple of days. Not to say they were overpowered, none of them were anywhere chunin level, but they were at a point where school wasn't helping them.

They were all at Sasuke and Naruto's house, the girls had long ago moved into the house across the street, and were discussing this problem in their leader's small living room. They had closed the Uzumaki Stand early for a clan meeting.

"Why can't we just graduate early?" Naruto huffed in annoyance. The other three had voted a while back that they didn't want to, none of them wanted to risk their lives when they were nine. They had also gone back and looked at the records of the kids who did graduate before the others, and none of them had a happy ending.

"You know very well why, Naruto," Sakura replied. Somehow, whenever they got into an argument like this, it was those two who did the most talking. Sasuke and Hinata would only interject when they felt they had to.

"We've gotten as far as were going to in the academy, we need a new plan. Graduating early would give us a new jounin instructor who would teach us new jutsu. Not to mention it would almost guarantee we're all in the same squad."

"Maybe all of us being on the same team wouldn't be such a good thing, and besides, we could always just find a random jounin and pester him till he teaches us stuff. We're all good at pestering," she said, with a pointed look at Naruto.

"Hey!" he said, though not as loud as he used to. Naruto had gotten more mature and quiet the past few years. Working at the Uzumaki Stand, serving customers and taking their orders, had helped give him some patience. He was still plenty loud when he wanted to be though. "What do you mean we shouldn't be in a squad? We work great together!" They did. They knew each other's strengths and weaknesses, and were all great friends. The arguments they all had were never serious, and if they got in a fight, it was in the defense of one of the others.

"I'm just thinking it might be better if we were all on a different team. We'd have the chance to socialize with others and learn what the other clans are like. Not to mention, every squad's sensei is different, and we could all learn different jutsu from our instructors."

The two had, like usual, gotten off from the original point. Sasuke and Hinata moved into the kitchen, knowing that they would have to fix the problem. They'd formed a sort of habit with this, Sakura and Naruto would stay in the living room until they got bored of arguing, then they would come into the kitchen where they knew the others would be and listen to their solution.

The kitchen was actually bigger than their living room, but they spent the most time in here anyway. The big wooden table took up the most space, with the four chairs surrounding it, but there were also small cabinets full of food and other things lining the walls. Hinata started to boil some water on the stove for tea. Each one of them had formed a habit of drinking it thanks to Sakura, with Naruto being the exception.

They waited for the tea to be ready before they sat down. Hinata had found a tea cup with a little puppy smile on it a while back, and it had quickly become her favorite.

"So what we need is something to keep our attention. It doesn't necessarily have to be shinobi related," Hinata started off. They liked to get all their facts out before they started to talk about answers.

"I think they others would prefer something of that genre though," Sasuke replied. He took a quick drink before continuing. "I'd also like for it to be some new techniques. We've all got the basics down, and if we want to make names for ourselves when we leave the academy, then we've got to specialize in something."

"Who said we want to be famous?" Hinata asked.

"You've seen Naruto and Sakura, they love it when they do something that gets them recognized at school. Naruto himself said he wanted to be hokage, and that's not going to happen without a lot of training. I don't know what Sakura wants to do, but I'm sure she wants a high up position, she wouldn't settle for anything less." Hinata made a small nod in understanding, that's exactly what she'd thought when he'd brought that up.

"I'm happy to help them in any way I can," she said. "I don't necessarily want to be famous, being alive and happy is enough for me. But if it helps them, I'll try and make a name for myself, maybe having good shinobi from the same clan would help them get where they want to."

Sasuke agreed with her. He didn't want to be someone everyone knew, even if all the girls already did. He wanted to be part of Anbu, an elite tracker nin that would hunt down rogue shinobi. Then he'd be able to find his brother, and try to talk some sense into him. He'd do it for his clan though.

"The problem still remains of how that's going to happen," Hinata sighed. They each sat for a couple minutes in silence, thinking. Sasuke already had an idea, he was just trying to find a way to make it work.

"What about the Uchiha compound?" He asked. Hinata looked at him as if he'd just dug up a grave, which is sort of what it would be like, if he didn't own the place. The compound belonged to the last living Uchiha, the village said so, even if they didn't specify which Uchiha it was. Everyone but the Hokage figured they meant Itachi.

"Sasuke, that's just awful. We couldn't."

"It's not that bad when you know the people who owned the stuff wouldn't mind. If anything, they'd be happy that someone was learning from it."

"You knew the Uchiha? How? They didn't let anyone in there that didn't have their last name. You'd have to be an Uchiha yourself to-" she cut herself off. Sasuke sat still as she looked at him closer.

"Why is it I didn't figure this out before?" she finally said after her examination. "You'd think one of us would have, what with all the time we spend together." He was glad she wasn't mad at him for not telling before, but he'd also been sort of expecting it. Hinata was good at respecting people's privacy. Naruto was another matter, and Sasuke didn't want to hear the Dobe's yelling all night.

"So you know where all the scrolls and supplies and the like are? You sure you're okay with this?" Sasuke shrugged, he didn't see why it would bother him. The swords and scrolls were nothing personal, not like a picture or a diary. As long as they didn't mess with anything that they didn't have to, he had no problem.

Sakura and Naruto came in, and they told the two their idea, and about Sasuke being part of the Uchiha clan. Naruto didn't act mad, instead he tried to pretend he had known the entire time. Sakura hugged him and said she was sorry about his family, but Sasuke was too busy trying to avoid human contact to notice.

They decided to go to the Uchiha library the next day. The girls went back over to their house and got ready for bed, and the boys did likewise.

The next consisted of school and then work. They really couldn't close shop early again, so they all stayed up late working. They wanted to split into groups of two, but the stand was busy, and leaving Hinata and Sakura to deal with the crowds themselves seemed cruel. It was about twelve o'clock when they were finally standing in front of the old Uchiha Compound gates.

Sasuke walked past them without a moments hesitation, and after about a second the others followed. He walked past every place that wouldn't have what they were needing, he didn't want to go into anyone's house. They went straight to the library. It took them a good amount of time, three years without any upkeep had lead to the place becoming quite dangerous. Snakes, loose roof tiles, and many other things made it hard for them to get through.

"We're here, make sure you grab any scrolls you think you would like. I don't want to come in here every other day, you guys may know I'm an Uchiha, but I'd prefer the rest of the village didn't."

All of them went to their respective areas in the library. Sakura and Naruto both wanted to get a lot stronger, so they both headed to the powerful sections like sealing and just straight-out hitting people. Hinata went over to find something on seals as well, Sasuke assumed it was because of the caged bird seal. It may have been a secret to the rest of the village, but the Uchiha clan has known about it for years, and Sasuke thought the seal vulgar. He headed over towards the stealth section.

Getting in hadn't been as easy as he'd made it look to the others. The entire Uchiha clan had had a "mild" case of paranoia, and there were traps everywhere. His cousin Shisui of the Body Flicker had put up traps that would teleport someone all the way to Kirigakure. Sasuke had almost screamed at Naruto, since he wouldn't stick to the path. He had thought the blonde was going to be killed by some crazy water-nin for sure.

Everyone picked out about ten scrolls that they thought they would like, each scroll had about three jutsu. Sakura had to hit Naruto on the head to keep him from taking nothing but A-rank jutsu. In the end it was decided that each of them would have one A-rank scroll they would try to learn. Hinata got one on seals that would increase the amount of chakra someone had, and Naruto had one that told him how to seal demons and use the chakra that was available to said demons. Sasuke's scroll was full of genjutsu, since he thought that would be the best area to study if he wanted to be a hunter-nin. Sakura's was all about chakra control and how to use it to increase strength. Sasuke thought he had heard of a shinobi that was a master at it, but he doubted they would find that person for Sakura. He also didn't mention it because he didn't want Naruto deciding the clan should go on a search for the guy, whoever it was.

Sasuke had told them all to try to find a scroll on elemental chakra, since that would make their Justus a lot stronger. He himself got a scroll on earth and water jutsu. He knew they were the exact opposite of his chakra's elements, but he thought of it as a way of improving. Fire and lightning jutsu were great in fights, but they had hardly any potential in a stealth operation.

They talked cheerfully as they walked down the abandoned streets of the Uchiha Compound. Sasuke thought that maybe the place wasn't as lonely as he had first made it out to be. As long as his clan was with him, he was never truly alone.


	8. Chapter 8

"Gosh darn it!" Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura all turned towards Hinata, who had just shouted. All of them had a defeated look on their face, and their exhaustion was very evident. They had gotten their scrolls Sasuke's library about three weeks ago, and none of them had been able to get anything down above a C rank. Sakura just wouldn't let them forget that they were all stuck on D ranks.

The scrolls were just too hard to learn from. They were all exceptional students, even Naruto was when he wanted to be, but scrolls were very straightforward. They didn't help the shinobi adjust the jutsu to their own style, and for four nine year olds on their own, it was impossible. The fact that Hinata had given up proved that.

"As clan leader, I'm giving you all a mission. We need someone to help us."

"Finally!" Sakura exclaimed. "I've been telling you that for the past week. We just need to find a jonin or chunin willing to help us."

"We don't want any genin though," Sasuke put in. "We've pranked them too many times, they'll probably just steal the scrolls or something. Now that I think about it, we really need someone we trust, anyone may be willing to steal our jutsu. And we also want someone who won't ask where we got them, or at least wouldn't care."

They all nodded. None of them wanted their Uchiha to be found. After a long discussion with him, and seeing where he would have to live if the village found out, they decided it would be best if he stayed Sasuke Uzumaki. Plus, they would all miss him being in their clan. He was one of the four founders, and none of them wanted him gone, least of all Sasuke.

"Where would we start to look for someone?"

"Well," Naruto drawled out, "I'm not sure. We get a lot of shinobi down at the Uzumaki Stand, maybe we could find someone there."

Sakura nodded her assent. "But remember, it can't be just anybody. We need someone we can trust. And, if we want to go all out, someone who's like us."

"What do you mean, 'someone like us'? Hinata asked warily.

"Someone crazy. Nobody who's sane is going to want to come here and help a bunch of academy kids learn stuff, much less academy kids from the Uzumaki Clan." There was a general murmur of agreement.

"Maybe we could find someone who hasn't even been to Konoha before," Naruto said.

"Why would we want to do that, oh great Dobe leader?" Sasuke asked, voicing everyone's thoughts.

"We need someone who we can trust, and to be honest, most of the people here hate our guts. With a fiery passion. Nobody out near Kiri has even heard of the Uzumaki Clan. Well, hopefully they haven't, and that means more people willing to hear us out rather than hit us over the head." Naruto subconsciously rubbed the back of his head, remembering one or two well placed blows.

"There are also a lot of people outside of Konoha who have really bad lives. We offer them a better place here in Konoha, and they might be grateful, not to mention the good we'd be doing," Sakura said, helping finish Naruto's thoughts.

"You two are forgetting something," Sasuke said, getting ready to voice his doubts. "How in the world are we going to get out of Konoha? You may not have noticed, but we aren't exactly genin yet." He paused for a minuted as he considered actually saying what he was thinking. "What are we going to do when Iruka finds out?" They all looked at each other, thinking of the horrors that would await them if their sensei found out.

"Wait," Naruto asked, "Why don't we just ask Iruka sensei to teach us?"

"Naruto," Hinata said, her voice a bit amused. "Sensei's not stupid. He'll want to know where we got the scrolls. He'd be livid that we'd taken them from the Uchiha Clan. Then, after he'd calmed down, all he would have to do was look at Sasuke to realize he was an Uchiha. The only reason he hasn't so far is because Sasuke hardly ever set foot outside of the compound while he lived there."

All of them flinched as one when they heard their alarm clock go off. Panicked eyes searched the room for things they would need for school. They were the only ones who had never missed a day of school. This was because whenever they thought of not going, they always saw an angry Iruka in their heads. It was funny, how a paper-nin chunin was able to scare them into such obedience.

They all got their school supplies in order, each carrying their own backpack. Sakura's was, obviously, pink. It had a bunch of marker all over it from where she, Ino, and Hinata had gotten bored. Hinata's was a plain beige, Naruto's was bright orange, and Sasuke's was white and blue.

They walked together in companionable silence through the streets of the Uzumaki Compound.

They'd cleaned the place up in the few years they'd been there. All the buildings were now servicable, courtesy of Sakura. She'd wanted to make sure that their clan would be able to help others if they needed to. She and Hinata had cleaned while Sasuke and Naruto had put in new floorboards and windows. Sakura and Sasuke had gotten together to fix the plumbing, while Naruto and Hinata fixed sidewalks and cleaned the streets.

Finally, after all the hard work was done, they had all decorated in a true Uzumaki fashion. They had all put graffiti on their own houses, saying something about themselves. Naruto's had a giant bowl of ramen painted on the front, Sakura's had a sakura tree grove growing along the sides, as a sort of pun. Sasuke's house was covered in painted shuriken of all varieties. When asked, he'd said something about training with his brother. Hinata hadn't really done much with hers, other than put big smiley faces all over it. None of them really understood why, they all thought Hinata had been in a good mood or something when they'd done it.

Banners were hung all over the place. Some were inspirational, some were corny, and some were downright stupid. One or two even had a list of the handsigns on them. They had been running out of ideas at the time. The grand finale to their Uzumaki sector was at the very beginning, and right in front of them as they headed to the academy. The Great Uzumaki Gate is what they decided to name it. In all reality, it was just a wooden gate with their symbol, a scale, at the top. But it represented their independence and friendship, and each of them treasured it.

School that day had been a bit of a disaster. Each of the Uzumaki's were busy worrying about how to improve, and none were really focusing on their schoolwork. Iruka noticed, but he decided not to try to make them engage in the work. Getting beat senseless by Kiba in their bi-monthly taijutsu tournament was enough of a punishment.

They all walked home, completely bruised and battered, and got ready for work. Naruto had made them all get t-shirts for when they were working that said "Uzumaki Stand- est. Since Before We Could Count".

They all piled into work that night exhausted. They would have messed up a lot of orders if they hadn't been working like this for several years. Their muscle-memory kept them from making any unfixable mistakes. None of them were really paying attention, and it was by pure chance that Hinata was taking a break when their best customer came over to buy her dango. She'd come with someone who they hadn't seen before, a guy in a black coat with a black cap on what she assumed was a bald head.

"Look, Ibiki, I'd love to help out here, but I just got a huge tip to where Orochimaru may be." Hinata wasn't one to eavesdrop, but when she heard the evil snake sannin's name mentioned, she couldn't resist.

"Anko, we need you on this mission. You're one of the best trackers we've got that can hold her own in a fight. None of the Inuzuka are willing to go."

"Send Kakashi then. His summons are practically made for tracking."

"We need him here Anko, he's an anbu captain. And I think he's on a mission right now."

"So much for needing him here. Look," Anko said, interrupting Ibiki's comeback. "As much as I would like to help, I can't. I can't let a lead this big just go to waste. Now shoo, you're ruining my dango time."

"Anko, we'll send someone else to see if Orochimaru's still there. Right now, we need your help to track down this shinobi. He was a great asset to his previous village, and if we can convince him to come here, Konoha will be better prepared for an attack."

Anko eyed him assessing. "Who said we were going to be attacked anytime soon?"

"Look, I'll tell you later. Right now, I need you to track this guy down. Without Itachi here, we need all the help we can get."

"Still upset over the whole Itachi thing? Guess I can't blame you, the kid was a genius. Bit too polite for my tastes, but he was okay. You're worried about the fox getting loose, aren't you?"

"Seals like that can't last forever, no matter who made them." Anko's dango was set in front of her, and she dug in with relish. She finished twenty six sticks in five minutes. Hinata was always impressed by the kunoichi's eating abilities, but this was a whole new level.

Ibiki was turning to leave when Anko turned her head back over to him. He paused just long enough to hear her say, "I'll do it." he was out of earshot when she said the rest.

"But I'm going to do it my way."

Hinata thought this could be their big break, and she didn't want to do anything without talking it over with the others, but Anko was getting ready to leave. She hesitated for less than a second, the walked up to the crazy, sweets-obsessed special jounin.

"Excuse me," Hinata said tentatively.

"Don't worry, I'll pay. I've paid every other time, haven't I?"

"Well, no, not really, but that's not what I want to ask you about."

Anko turned away, "Look sweetie, I thank you for the delicious dango, and I will pay this time. I've got a lot on my mind right now, and need to get going. Ibiki was being mean and wouldn't let me do what I want. Now, I've got to go throw a temper tantrum." She made to leave, but Hinata stood in front of her.

"Okay, sweetie, now you're getting kinda annoying. If it wasn't for the face that you guys have the best dango in Konoha, and I'd probably get banned from this place, I'd be pushing you out of the way right now." She glared down at Hinata, who glared back up at her, a stubborn set in her jaw.

Suddenly, Anko was laughing. "Jeez, kid! You're not so stuffy as I thought you were. Alright, phase one of conversation complete. What was it you were wanting?"

"My clan needs a shinobi to help teach us. We've got scrolls, but they're hard to learn from by themselves. I overheard that you were leaving Konoha on a mission to go find a missing nin, who, from what I seem to remember from the conversation, was very good. You need to bring him back, and we need a teacher to help us out." Hinata took a small breath to steady herself for the request, "I want you to take us with you on your mission."

Hinata inwardly flinched at how demanding she sounded, but she didn't want to show weakness in front of this woman. If she'd learned anything about her crazy customer, it was that she didn't appreciate weakness. But then again, she also didn't like being told what to do, so Hinata was basically taking a shot in the dark.

Anko raised an eyebrow at the little black haired girl in front of her. She was stubborn, Anko would give her that. She wasn't all that annoyed at the girl for eavesdropping, it was her own fault for letting it happen. She thought back on what she knew about her. She thought her name was Hinata. Hinata Uzumaki, a member of the newly "revived" Uzumaki Clan. Within her clan was four members, Sasuke Uzumaki, Sakura Uzumaki, and their leader, Naruto Uzumaki. About three years ago, they had shown up out of nowhere and taken over the trashy sector of Konoha that only the drunks visited. Within weeks, they'd started a successful food stand that shinobi could go to for a meal anytime after school hours.

Hinata had been a Hyuuga, the Hyuuga heiress, before her father had disowned her because of a prank. Sakura was much the same, only she had come from a civilian family. No one knew where the Sasuke kid came from, everyone just assumed he'd been an orphan living on the streets Naruto had made friends with. Naruto, their leader, and the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. He was hated because of the demon inside of him. Most people chose to ignore him, which led to him having a career as a master prankster. The kid could give the anbu a run for their money.

All in all, in the clans three years of existence, it had gained a credible status. The kids were self-sufficient, and many of the academy teachers had remarked upon their skills with the basic jutsu that were taught at the school. Looking back at the little girl in front of her, she could tell that they all cared for each other.

Her face broke into a giant grin as she thought about what Ibiki would say.

"Alright kid, you're in. Just make sure you don't cause too much damage to my reputation." She winked at her, "Girl's gotta keep her credentials straight."

Hey guys. Just wanted to give you a heads up- Anko's not going to be out of the picture anytime soon. The next chapter will explain all, you just got to give me a bit of time to write it.

SarniePolla- Over and Out!


	9. Chapter 9

"Alright, kiddies! Let's set the ground rules!" Anko had agreed to take them out with her on her mission to Kiri. They had to get up really early in the morning, and they were all outside in a shivering circle, freezing in the early foggy air. They were all trying to get closer to one another, desperate to get a bit warmer. None of them had been able to get any sleep the night before since they were all too excited. Lack of sleep plus freezing equals upset Uzumaki's.

"Now, if and when we get into a fight, all you little guys will run away, really really fast. If we get to a place where it looks like there's going to be a fight, you run away, just not as fast." Naruto was about to fall asleep standing up, and Sakura and Hinata had already given up. The two girls were sitting with their backs against each other on the ground, with Hinata's jacket underneath them to keep the cold from the ground away. Sasuke was the only one who was paying attention to Anko's little pep talk, and that was only because he wanted to laugh about it later.

They had all figured out what they would do in a fight a couple nights before. They'd actually had a full on clan meeting about what they would do on this trip. They had all agreed that if they couldn't beat the person in a fight, they would run, but if they had even the smallest chance of surviving, they would go for it. If any of them were close to dying, the others would do their best to make sure the person got through, and the dying one would do their best to make sure they stopped dying. That was about as far as they had gotten in their meeting before the popcorn ahd finished. Naruto, of course, had made ramen instead.

Sasuke was happy they were going outside of the village. This would give them a chance to learn more about their world, and to see what they would be up against in the coming years. They were out looking for a sensei, and he knew that there was a small chance of it actually happening, so he was going to enjoy the trip while it lasted. The crazy woman in front of him had told them that they were going to be going to a couple different places, not just Kiri. They were also going to Suna, and maybe even someplace near Wave. What they would want over in Wave was a complete mystery to Sasuke, but it seemed to him like the perfect place for a missing nin to go into hiding at.

His mind continued its roaming as Anko went on about what they were supposed to do if anything happened. He had been saving up his allowance from the stand, and had bought a bingo book a couple days ago. He'd memorized every ninja in it in preparation for the trip. All the other Uzumaki's had decided to wing it, even Sakura. He'd figured he had better be ready, so at least one of them was. While he was reading, he had come across someone he had thought looked to be a viable candidate. Kakashi Hatake, the Copy-nin. Owner of over one thousand copied jutsu that he had gained from his sharingan. He was notorious for his odd tendencies, his most famous being his bad punctuality. Sasuke had been about to get the others and organize an attack, but then he'd seen that the man was from Konoha. He immediately crossed the man off the list. It was a shame too, the book had said his sensei had been the Fourth Hokage himself.

He wasn't ever really bothered by the cold, and lack of sleep was nothing new to him. He used to have nightmares as a child, ones that involved some pretty bad scenarios. He would always wake up screaming, scared that someone he cared about had died. That was all he ever saw in his nightmares. Not scary enemy nin, not his own death, but the death of his brother, or his parents. When he'd helped form the Uzumaki Clan, his dreams had changed. Now it was the others getting hurt.

He'd always been worried about his family, since they were all shinobi. Being a ninja meant risking your life for your village and your family everyday. He had known that fact since he was two, and had been terrified of it ever since. That was why he had to get stronger. That was why he had joined this clan. It was why he had taken them to the library to get new scrolls. It was why he was leaving the village right now in search of a teacher. He needed to be the strongest shinobi out there, so he could protect the ones he cared about, not the other way around.

He thought of his brother, Itachi. He knew that his niisan was out there somewhere, probably without anyone there to worry about him or care about him. He remembered all the times that his brother had helped him, whether it was with a bad dream, training, or something else entirely. Itachi had always been there for him, and looked out for him. Now, it was Sasuke's turn.

"Now, you all got that right?" Anko looked over at them expectantly. She knew that they were all either asleep or wishing they could be, but she wanted to see exactly what they were made of. It took a strong ninja to be able to get up early in the morning and not fall face first.

None of them had a bloody nose from falling, and she took that as a good sign. The girls were asleep, and so was their leader. The other one looked like he was daydreaming in class. She was pretty sure she was going to like these kids. Maybe she would offer to teach them, but they would have to pay her in dango.

"Hop to!" She shouted, making all of them jump up in surprise. "We gotta get moving if we don't want those guys over at the gate catching us. They're all such a drag, making sure no kids leave, and trying to keep me in line." She was subconsciously trying to freak them out, without her realizing it. Lucky for her, all of the children were rather immune to that sort of thing.

Naruto shuddered, but not from the cold. "Just make sure that Iruka doesn't find us." He said, a small tremor in his voice. The others nodded fervently. Half of what kept them up last night was excitement, the other half fear of their teacher.

Anko grinned, her hands on her hips, as she saw her new companions shoot off. She laughed, and then shot off after them, not wanting them to get all the fun to themselves.

They made it through without any trouble. It wasn't the first time the kids had snuck past a couple ninja, even Anbu level. Naruto has been pulling pranks for years before they all met, and within weeks he had trained them all in the arts of annoyance.

Now they were outside, laughing and jumping around, celebrating the first Uzumaki Clan field trip. Hinata was laying on the ground, trying to see if the ground outside was somehow comfier than that of the ground inside the walls. Sakura was looking at the flowers in wonder, seeing all the different kinds, even though she'd seen them so many times before. Naruto was hugging a tree, for no apparent reason other than because he could. Sasuke wasn't willing to degrade himself to things like that, at least not in the presence of others. Instead, he was focusing his chakra, trying to see if he could feel the nature chakra around him. Anko just watched on, hands once again on her hips, head tilted to the side.

The party went on for a couple more seconds before Sakura sat up, her hands on her knees in front of her.

"We should probably get moving now," she said, a bit of sadness creeping into her voice.

"Don't you little ones worry," Anko countered, sensing their upset state. "Moving on further, you'll get to see things that you haven't even seen before. There are things native only to certain spots that you can only see there. Meaning, get off your butts and let's get a move on!"

There were whoops and cheers all around as they started their march down the road. Naruto and Sasuke were up front, talking about all the different types of ninja they would be meeting, while Hinata and Sakura hung in the back behind Anko, just having a good time and not discussing anything in particular. Anko was in the middle of the group, licking her kunai to test if they were sharp enough.

Naruto was really having a good time. He was out of the village for the first time, and he didn't have all the villagers glaring at him. He didn't mind it as much as he used to, since he had his friends now to help him deal with it, but it was still nice to get outside of the mysterious layer of hate. None of them had been able to figure out why the people he tried so hard to be good to hated him, and eventually they had all decided that it didn't matter why. They just knew that they were going to fix it.

Naruto liked that about his clan. They didn't care what he did, or how he acted, or how he talked. As long as he was friends with them, they were friends with him. They always helped each other with school work, and when one was sick, one of them would stay home and take care of the sick one, and two would go to school. That way, the two who stayed home could easily catch up on the missed lessons. Even though none of them would ever acknowledge it out loud, they all knew it was usually Sasuke who took care of them when they got sick. Naruto himself had never gotten sick.

The world outside the village was very peaceful. He wasn't as sensitive to chakra as Hinata and Sasuke were, but he was still able to feel the gentle flow of nature chakra that surrounded them. It seemed to just be everywhere. There was a small breeze, and it wasn't too hot either. Even Naruto, the hyperactive knucklehead ninja of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, could calm down and relax here. To summarize, he liked it here.

They went on for the next few days, camping, hunting, and taking breaks. They had taken survival courses in the academy, so they knew how to stay alive outside of a town. All shinobi needed to know how to, so that they would be able to take care of themselves if they couldn't get back to the village, or for any other reason they would be living outside. The girls had a tent, and the boys had a tent. They all stayed up late at night, talking about what they had seen, and in Sasuke's and Naruto's case, arguing about what was best. The scenery changed everyday, and while it was mostly the same stuff, the four of them managed to find something new about it.

Anko had said that they would be close to Kiri after a couple of days. It would have taken longer if they had been on something like an escort mission, but they were all ninja, and were quite capable of the pace that others would consider severe.

"Hey, Hinata," Naruto said, on the afternoon of the third day. "Doesn't it look like there's something in the fog?"

Hinata squinted into the wall of mist in front of them. Usually such a thing would be impossible under the hot sun of midday, but they were getting closer to Kiri, and the weather was changing drastically.

"It does look like there's something out there. I'll check it out." She activated her byakugan and started searching for chakra signatures. It was only a couple of seconds before she let out a small gasp.

"There's so many people there, it could almost be a village!"

"That," Anko said, slapping a hand on her folder and causing her to flinch, "is because it is." She spread her arms out for a dramatic flare. "Welcome to Kiri, my pretties!"

Sasuke slowly leaned towards Naruto, "Did she seriously just say 'my pretties'?" he whispered conspiratorially.

"Yep, she just did."

Kiri wasn't as busy or as big as Konoha, but it was still bustling with activity as they walked in. The streets were smaller, so people were all packed together as they went about their business. Vendors beckoned to the people from their stalls as they went past. It was only thanks to Anko's crazy aura that they were able to walk down the street together. People could sense the insanity coming off of her in waves, and hastily got out of the way.

"Alright, guys. I'm gonna have to leave you here, but I know that you're all able to take care of yourselves. Now, scurry off or stay here. But if you stay here, you are liable to getting trampled to death. I won't have to worry about that, since your wonderful clan leader signed a waiver that said I wasn't responsible."

Accusing eyes turned toward Naruto, who had the decency to look a tad sheepish.

"She told me it was for ice cream during the trip…" he trailed off quietly.

Sakura sucker punched him over the head.

"You idiot!" she exclaimed. "I told you to check everything like that over with me!" She turned over to Anko, "Why would you take advantage of the disabled?" she growled, throwing her arms up in despair.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted angrily, "I am not stupid!"

Sakura smacked her forehead, "You just signed off our protection because you thought it was about ice cream."

Anko held her hands in a placating gesture, "Calm down y'all. You'll be fine, no one's coming after you here unless you're actually important."

She scampered off before they could get into another argument. Hinata shook her head.

"Well, at least now we get to go around on our own."

"Speaking of which," Sasuke cut in, "we should probably start. It'll be hard to check this entire place, and we don't know how long we'll be here." Nods of agreement were made, and they started off on their search, Naruto in the lead and Sakura behind him.

They had only been looking for about an hour when Naruto saw a ramen stand, and decided that they just had to stop for lunch. Hinata and Sasuke waited around back while Sakura stayed with Naruto to make sure he didn't get rid of all their money. Hinata and Sasuke were doing a type of training exercise they had made for themselves. They would each send out a tiny chakra pulse, and wait for the other to say that they could sense it. When they did, they would each move to a different spot and try again.

Hinata was sitting there, waiting for Sasuke to start, when she felt a different chakra flare. She stiffened as she felt it again, stronger than before. Whoever it was was moving closer to her, and she couldn't get to Sasuke in time if the person was hostile. She sat there, gathering chakra in case she got into a fight, waiting for the person to show up. She heard a soft, calm voice behind her, and started.

"Hello. I hope I didn't scare you, I was just trying to get some ramen." Hinata turned around and saw a young boy, yet he was still older than her. He was very pretty, and she knew many girls at school who would be jealous of his face. She was only able to tell he was a boy from the way he acted. Of course, he was certainly a very feminine boy.

"I think I should be the one who's sorry. I hope I didn't make you think someone was in trouble here, I just didn't know if you were an enemy or not. I'm not from around here, and I don't really know many people here. My friends and I figured that we could never be too careful." He nodded, agreeing with her.

"My name is Haku," he said, smiling slightly. She smiled a little back at him. She was starting to like this boy, Haku.

"My name's Hinata."

"And my name's Sasuke." Each of them turned to the boy who had just spoken, Haku a bit apprehensively. "Pleasure to meet you," Sasuke continued, being on his best behavior to put Haku at ease.

"Nice to meet you too," Haku replied. "I hope I wasn't interrupting anything."

Hinata shrugged, "Not at all," she said, her tone cheery.

They continued talking, and ended up having a good time. All three of them were a lot alike, and really hit it off. Sasuke and Hinata learned that Haku was an orphan, and was living on the streets. They could tell he didn't like to talk about it, so they didn't press him on the topic. In the end, they learned that Haku didn't have a place to stay, and was living off of scraps from anything he could find. Sasuke and Hinata came to an unspoken agreement about the child in front of them, now they only had to get Naruto and Sakura to agree. They didn't think they'd have any problem though.

 _Sorry for the late chapter, I've just been having a bit of an off week. End of school and everything._

 _Anyways, thanks for all the response, and I would be really happy if it kept coming. Thanks guys,_

 _SarniePolla_


	10. (Not actually) Chapter 10

_Hey guys, I know it's been a while since I updated. I've got the next chapter done, but I want to write a bit more and try to really get a good plot going before I publish it._

 _I'm also thinking about going back and editing some of the chapters that I have already written, adding things like sensory details and imagery._

 _Please don't be mad at me for not publishing the actual chapter here, I know I've gotten a little mad at people who did that. I've just been reading a couple other stories, and had a few revelations about how I could improve mine. A beta reader is definitely one of those ways. If anyone reading this is interested in wasting a couple minutes of their life helping me, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm trying to get the chapters done as soon as possible, I promise._

 _ **Thank you for all the favorites, follows, and reviews so far!**_

SarniePolla


	11. (Actually) Chapter 10

"This meeting of the Uzumaki Clan will now come to order, on the third day of July thirty-two hours past the half day mark, and sixteen minutes to the sixth ramen lunch. We are currently stationed at our temporary meeting area behind the almighty Kirigakure ramen stand, positioned around the sixty-two year old stump. The two members to call this meeting were Hinata and Sasuke Uzumaki, who joined- Ack!" Naruto coughed, rubbing his hand over his now sore neck, which had already started to turn red. He looked suspiciously between each member of his clan, trying to figure out who had attacked him. He was met by innocent smiles all around, though he thought for sure that he saw Hinata smirking a bit. The stupid Teme has corrupted her. He sent one more frown in their direction before continuing,

"The presiding secretary, Sakura Uzumaki, will now read the minutes of the last meeting. Lady Sakura, if you would ple-"

"Can it Dobe."

Naruto glared murderously at Sasuke where he sat, smirking and looking at him with that "I know I'm better than you" look on his face. Naruto was about to go teach the jerk a lesson, but decided in the end it would be best to just complain to himself.

He mumbled quietly about how he was trying to impress Haku, and how things like this would be the difference in whether he joined or left. Then he murmured about how the stupid Teme has corrupted poor Hinata. The only words the other Uzumaki's heard, however, were "ramen", "Teme", and "corruption". Hinata heard a small voice in her head telling her that Naruto was praying to the ramen god yet again.

They were all gathered around a stump they had found behind the ramen stand, after Hinata and Sasuke had called an emergency clan meeting. Haku sat awkwardly between Sasuke and Hinata, looking a bit unsure of the proceedings occuring around him. Naruto was currently crossing his arms and glaring at Sasuke, since he had failed the attempt to impress their potentially new member. Sakura was also upset, for once the meeting had been finally happening like it was supposed to and it was being ruined by stupidity. She too glared furiously at Sasuke, Hinata, and Naruto for being stupid before turning back to listen.

They had all been briefed on what the meeting was about, Haku's current living conditions, and Hinata and Sasuke's opinion on the matter. Sakura herself already knew they would let the boy into the clan, she just happened to like it better when they did things officially. Which they never did.

She usually paid attention during these meetings, making sure Naruto didn't do anything they would all come to regret. She really wasn't sure why they had made him leader, but it had worked so far, and she wasn't willing to upset the balance. Not to mention Naruto's people skills had gotten them pretty far.

Her clanmates quickly dropped the formal regulations and resorted to petty bickering. She just shook her head in disappointment. Her clan really were just a bunch of kids sometimes, they were lucky they had her to keep them straight. She decided to think about what they would do when they got back.

Haku could either live in one of the houses by himself, or he could join the boys in their house. They had plenty of funds available, so buying him a futon and other necessities was no problem. She wasn't sure if he would be able to get into the academy so late, and she was pretty confident there was a rule against bringing unregistered people into Konoha. Not that she considered that an actual concern, Naruto would get the Hokage to agree; he always did.

There was another problem though. She wasn't convinced that Haku would be comfortable living with them. He seemed like the quiet, calm, and gentle type. She didn't know if someone like that could survive living in close proximity with the chaos that was the Uzumaki clan. Of course they had Hinata, but she had quickly turned out to be a lot different than what they had expected. She had pulled almost as many pranks as Naruto, and he was currently holding second place in the Pranks Records, right behind a duo named Kushina and Minato. Why they had a book to record pranks, she would never know. It was Konoha, it was to be expected.

"At least I can do a simple bunshin jutsu Dobe."

"Hey! You know I could make twenty times the amount that you can, if I could get the doing it part down!"

This was how most of their meetings went. Naruto and someone, generally Sasuke, would get in an argument. The others would carry on with the meeting, and _try_ get the work done. _Why can't we actually get something done for once?_ She shook her head again, these meetings always turned her day upside down.

"That's enough!" she shouted, slamming her fist down onto the hardwood in front of her. All talking immediately ceased.

"Now isn't this better?" she asked, smiling dangerously at them all. Three heads hastily nodded in time with each other.

Sakura narrowed her eyes at them, knowing the temporary reprieve was just that: temporary. She smiled once again, thinking about how she could deal with their annoyances later.

"Now, Haku, you are welcome to become a member of our clan any time you choose. I have to warn you though, everything that went on here is a picnic compared to our everyday life."

Haku himself had been slowly edging away from the circle for a little while now, and was a good three feet away by the time her stare froze him.

 _Leave it to us to make a first impression like this._

Haku's face was the perfect picture of skepticism. Sakura had to admit, he looked a lot less intimidated than she had anticipated. He was in a position that he could get up and run at any time, and he was looking warily at the three children staring at him. All in all, a lot better than any of their classmates had been when they got caught in the middle of their little "campfires".

"I'll have to think it over," he said finally, releasing his held breath. Sakura also breathed out in relief. It hadn't been an automatic no, like she'd been expecting. Haku glanced nervously between them all before he mumbled something quietly, ducking his head.

"What's that, eh?" Naruto asked, leaning as far forward as he could without falling. _Nope, nevermind_ , Sakura thought, watching him face plant onto the ground.

"I was hoping if," Haku stuttered out, "If I could… Umm… ask you all if-"

"Ouch!" Naruto yelled, getting up and rubbing his head. Sakura glomped him in the exact spot.

"Please continue, Haku," she said sweetly.

"Well… I was wondering if you were willing to… If you were willing to accept someone else as well." Hinata smiled warmly.

"We're willing to let anyone join, as long as they don't kill people for sport," she said jokingly. Haku looked a bit put out by this, though Sakura was willing to let it slide for now. _If he turns out to be a homicidal maniac, we can just kill him._

"What's his name?" she asked, wondering if it was anyone she had met so far. She'd seen more than a couple other homeless children running around, and wondered if she would recognize his friend from any of them. That was, if he described the person in such a detail that he didn't resemble every other dirt covered child on the street.

"His name is Zabuza Momochi."

Sakura facepalmed; Hinata tried to smile and failed; Sasuke deadpanned."This guy sounds awesome already! When are we going to get to meet him?"

Anko hadn't found any intel on where Momochi was. She had to admit, the guy was good at not being found. Every dango restaurant she stopped at said that they hadn't seen him. She was getting quite frustrated. In a small, teensy bout of anger, she had impaled a kid's pet rabbit with one of her dango sticks. Luckily, there had been no witnesses.

She growled in annoyance as she walked over to the ramen stand she had last seen the kids go to. She'd left them alone for a couple days while she went on her "recruit the crazy, murdering, missing-nin" mission, and she wasn't sure what kind of trouble they could have gotten into. Word around Konoha was those kiddies could tear down a building if you left them alone for a few minutes. She hadn't been given any reason during her time traveling with them to believe it, but even the Third seemed a bit wary around the kids sometimes, so she decided not to take too many chances.

Looking at the people eating, she quickly distinguished her children from the bunch. Mostly because they were the only people there, besides a kid and this guy with a huge sword that they were laughing with. She went over to them, ready to break up the little party. The Uzumaki's had asked to travel with her, which meant that they would have to leave when she wanted to as well. She was certain that Momochi wasn't going to be found in Kirigakure.

"Hello again, my traveling compadres! Sadly, my mission here is a bust, which means you and your friends are going to have to say bye-bye now. Sorry, fellas but-" she cut off abruptly as the masked face turned to look at her. She internally fed herself to a snake. The giant sword, why hadn't she recognized it?

She got her kunai out and took up a defensive stance. Not the best way to get someone to follow you home, but she wasn't risking the lives of five kids to complete the mission. That was something only her old sensei would do. She growled at the thought of the man, and her curse mark hummed darkly with chakra in response. She got ready to grab the kids and get them out of the way, when Naruto jumped in front of her.

 _Risking a bunch of kids makes me sensei. One life isn't too bad, the Kyuubi will just come back in a decade or two anyway._

"Hold up Anko! This is Zabuza, he's a friend of ours." Trust them to make friends with a murderer.

Sakura joined him. "He and Haku joined the clan yesterday. As of now, Zabuza is officially Zabuza Uzumaki." Anko was beginning to wonder if two dead kids was too much.

"What's more," Hinata added, having glided over to stand on the other side of Naruto, "He has agreed to train us."

"I went through the Hokage's office and found your mission pamphlet." Sasuke was still sitting by his bowl of ramen, obviously 'too cool' to go stand in the friendship circle that was forming in front of her.

"Your mission was to retrieve the missing ninja Zabuza Momochi and bring him back to Konoha, where he could perform missions as an Anbu member, if possible, during your search for some sort of seal master. You won't be able to bring Zabuza Momochi back, but you might have a chance at bringing back Zabuza Uzumaki."

The kids were undeniably insane. Not only had they just made friends with a man who had graduated by killing his entire class and his apprentice, they had also let him join their clan. If the Hokage approved it, then they would both become official citizens of Konoha.

They had also just made her job so much easier. Even if her "official" mission was to find a certain seal master, bringing Zabuza back was stressed to her earlier. Also, he was still a crucial part in tracking down the seal master. Besides, who didn't want sociopath for a friend?

"Alright then Uzumaki's," she said, putting her kunai away and grinning. "Who wants dango?"

Naruto sat beside Sasuke and Haku, and watched as Anko devoured bowl after bowl of dango. Their two newest additions looked a bit worried about her level of sugar intake, but he and his other clanmates knew better. It was Naruto on a sugar rush that you really had to look out for.

"Is she going to be ok?" He looked over to see his new sensei staring at Anko with a mixture of awe and horror."Yea, she'll be fine. You haven't even seen me get started on ramen yet!" Haku's face went a tad bit green, but Naruto assumed it was just because he had eaten too much dango.

"You guys are going to love Konoha! We have the best place there! Our compound is huge, and you can have any building you want. All of the ninja love us too. They always give us the nicest presents! This one time, they left us a box of paint outside my door. Too bad it exploded, it was a great shade of pink. All the kids at school thought it was a great color too, since it got all over my clothes!"

Sasuke watched as Naruto rambled on and scared the crap out of the Swordsman. He just wished the Dobe would realize a prank for what it was. It was odd that he couldn't tell when someone was pulling a prank on him, when he did it to others so often.

"Hey Sasuke." He turned to see that Anko had taken a break from vacuuming in her bowl. "How'd you manage to get into the Hokage's office?" He considered lying for a minute, but then thought better of it. It would be just as funny if he told the truth.

"I didn't. I got this guy in spandex to do it for me."

"You mean Gai?"

"The Beautiful Blue Beast of Konoha deemed my mission worthy. He would do anything to protect a valiant kunoichi from the Leaf. When he learned that you were in danger of being pranked for a month, he youthfully accepted the quest, and retrieved the papers I needed to ensure your safety."

 _Many, many thanks to Unifrog1331, whose wonderful beta-reading has made this chapter so much better than it would have been._


	12. Chapter 11

"Let me get this straight," Anko said, bending over slightly to get a better look at Naruto's face.

They were standing by a small lake that they had found as they were leaving Kiri. Anko hadn't asked the kids anything about what they had done in the time that she'd left them until this point in time. She'd been a bit too surprised at seeing two new Uzumaki's to wonder how they'd gotten there.

"You found Haku, and offered to let him join your clan," she continued. A nod from the children.

"He asked you if Zabuza could join and you said yes, knowing full well who Zabuza was." Nods again, though Anko was pretty sure she saw Sakura punch Naruto on the shoulder. She smirked a little; the girl could definitely hit hard.

"I'll have you know that I had no intentions of joining their little cult."

"That's a very good name for it Zabuza, but I think the shinobi in Konoha would prefer you call it a clan. They're already convinced the kids are tiny Bijuu."

"The only demons I believe in are myself, and that blue faced, beady eyed ba-" He cut off abruptly, looking at the faces of the nine year olds in front of him. He scowled, then snarled, before the words "Boogeyman." were spat out.

"Back to the matter at hand!" Anko said, giggling a bit at the Swordsman's choice of words.

"You said Zabuza could join the ANBU, and that he would get to choose which missions he wanted, right?"

"We also promised sensei he would get to kill Kisame!" Naruto exclaimed.

"We did?"

"Yeah, Sakura. Don't you remember?"

"Who's Kisame?" Hinata asked.

"I dunno. Hey Teme who's-!"

"Kisame's a freaky shark dude with a giant sword that he uses to shave his beard."

"He doesn't sound that bad to me."

"That's because you're a Dobe that doesn't know that trash can't talk."

"Hey, you thought that it was talking too!"

"Enough!" Zabuza glared at them and an overwhelming Killing Intent was filling the air. It got the kids quiet, but not scared. They'd gotten better from Iruka on a good day.

"The brats promised me paid assassination missions from their village, as well as any mission that involves bringing pain, misery, and death to the sushi loving traitor. They also swore they would give me the funds necessary for the rebellion here."

Anko didn't question anything, at least not at that moment. She needed the Demon of the Mist's help to find the man she was looking for, or someone like the man she was looking for. She really couldn't remember who she was supposed to be getting at this point. Her brain had short circuited a bit from all the dango. All she could remember was something about Zabuza helping her find a seal master.

"Momochi, do you-"

"His name's Uzumaki." Sasuke interjected. Anko summoned one of her less poisonous snakes and let it play with him.

"Zabuza," she tried again, ignoring the sounds of the kids trying to kill her summons, "do you know where I can find a seal master?"

The man showed no outward sign of interest or acknowledgment, but she could sense his attention was on her. He didn't say anything for a while, and she was about to summon another snake when he answered.

"Which one? I know about three or four."

"What makes you think I remember which one? I just need to bring a seal master back so Ibiki will stop harassing me about a certain jinchuuriki. Then I can go and kill my old sensei. Maybe kill Ibiki before that though, goodness knows he deserves it. And it'd be even funnier than that time in the Forest of Death..." She realized Zabuza was looking at her funny.

"What? Don't preach to me. You've killed at least a third of the amount of people I have."  
_

They hurried on to Suna, because apparently, getting Zabuza to join their clan wasn't enough for Anko. And Naruto had been feeling kinda proud of that too.

Haku had told them that he could make ice after a couple of days when Sasuke got a heat stroke from the desert. Needless to say, as leader, Naruto had appropriately digested that information and come up with some great strategies for travelling. They all currently had little ice cubes in their water pouches.

Man, he was getting bored. They just kept seeing the same thing over and over. It had been fun going to Kiri, there'd been a lot of different things to see and do on the way. In the Land of Air, it was just sand, sand, and more sand. The only thing that had kept him from calling the place a wasteland of boredom was when Sasuke had passed out. And even that had quickly gotten old.

"Neh, Anko. When are we going to get there?" He asked, a pout on his face. The sand kept sifting beneath his feet, and he felt almost like he was walking on water.

"Naruto, have a bit of patience!" Sakura hissed at him.

 _Easy for you to say_ , he newest member Haku had started hanging out with Sakura a lot, and telling her a bunch of stories. Of course she wouldn't be bored, but he was!

"Suna is a very big village. When we get there it will totally be worth the trip! Its…" She trailed off, a defeated frown on her face.

 _Karma!_ He sung in his head.

"Who am I kidding? This place is complete trash." Hinata deflated a little too.

"You could have kept going." she complained. "You were at least starting to fool me a little."

"When we get there, I am going to go and eat ramen for three hours! Believe it!" His miracle medicine had never let him down before, and he knew that it would perk him up after the lousy field trip.

"Naruto," Haku said gently. He was speaking very slowly, and Naruto was somehow reminded of someone being told their pet had just croaked. "I don't think that they'll have ramen there…" Haku trailed off, looking at the blank look on his new leader's face.

"No...ramen?" Naruto asked shakily.

"Well, they can't have many farms here and ramen takes flour to make the noodles. Flour comes from wheat, which comes from farms," Haku rambled, worried. "Since they can't have farms they can't have noodles, and since they can't have noodles, they can't-"

"NO RAMEN!?"

"Alright, that's enough." Anko said, coming over.

"Naruto, calm down. You packed at least a hundred instant ramen cups in your storage scroll." Oh, right. He'd forgotten about that. Anko was saying more, but Naruto was too busy calming down to pay attention. That was the scariest thing he'd ever heard in his life, even after being told about the Kyuubi attack. He'd felt something weird happen to his chakra when he'd heard the awful news, and he was trying to get it back to normal. It was surging around in him almost like it was angry. He let it go after a while, and walked off from Anko's lecture while she had her eyes closed.

"Finally!"

They had spent six days travelling to Suna, and in Sasuke's opinion, it could have gone a lot faster. Six days seeing nothing but sand in every direction was really starting to get to him. And it didn't help that he had to put up with the Dobe making fun of him because of a heat stroke. It wasn't like it was his fault, he just forgot that he had to drink more water than usual to stay hydrated. Besides, Hinata had asked for some of his, and he'd had to lower how much he drank that day to make it last.

And the trip hadn't even been worth it. Suna was hardly anything to look at. The buildings were all the same shape and bland gray colour. The people were all wearing the same type of clothing, and none of them were very friendly. Haku was right when he said they didn't have many farms. The only fruit or vegetable the stores had to offer were different types of cacti. He smirked, thinking that Naruto wouldn't be able to have any fresh ramen for a while. He did his best to ignore the voice in his head that said there were no tomatoes.

As before, Anko left them to do whatever they wanted again. Only this time, she took Zabuza with her. Sasuke was disappointed by that. He had hoped their new "sensei" would help them train.

"What now?" Haku asked, and Sasuke had to agree with him. There was literally nothing to do where they were at.

"I thought I saw a playground earlier when we came in." Hinata said.

"All I would do at a playground is kill all the little kids playing tag by throwing sticks at them like they were senbon." Each one of them backed away from Sakura.

"What?" She asked, looking like she was going to punch them. "Can't you guys understand a joke?"  
"Sakura, you might want to stop hanging out with Anko so much…" Naruto said, a bit disturbed. Hinata and Haku both looked like they agreed with his statement. Sasuke couldn't care less. He knew that the crazier the ninja, the stronger they were. He actually thought it might be better for them if Sakura turned into some kind of serial killer. With Zabuza and a bloodthirsty Sakura, they'd have one of the best clans in Konoha. And it meant that he wouldn't have to be the one to go insane. He walked off from them in the direction of the playground, knowing that they would follow him eventually.

The streets were all the same too, so he got a little tripped up trying to find his way around. He passed a bunch of weapons and scroll shops along the way, and made mental notes of where they all were. He thought he could come back to them after he'd gone and wasted about an hour of his life at a worthless playground.

He wasn't disappointed when he got to the playground, like he had thought he would be. There was only one person there, and it was a red haired boy with a giant gourd strapped to his back. What kept Sasuke from being disappointed was the fact that the kid was definitely a ninja, or at least training to become one. He was manipulating the sand around him, and was at that moment trying to hit Sasuke with it.

Thing was, his shots were going wide. He thought the kid had a better chance of hitting the wall behind him than he did Sasuke. He saw the others walk up to stand behind the crazy-eyed sand kid.

"You need to relax, the tension in your mind is causing your chakra to spiral out of control," Sakura offered to the red head suddenly.

"She's right," Hinata followed up. "Your chakra is inside that sand, reinforcing your control over it. The better control you have over your chakra, the better you'll be able to aim."

"Why are you guys helping him kill me?" Sasuke asked, wondering what he'd done this time to warrant a deity's wrath. All he could think of at the moment was that time when he'd played with the bells at a shrine, but he'd seen Naruto do it plenty of times, and no lightning ever came down and hit him on the head.

"I don't need your help!" The boy suddenly yelled. "I just need your death!"

 _How dramatic_ , was all Sasuke could think about that. He hoped he never turned out to be like that.

"Dude, you keep screaming about how you want to kill people, and no one's going to want to be your friend." Naruto said.

"I don't need friends! I've never had any, and I never will either!"

"Not with that attitude you won't," Naruto scoffed. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at his leader. He'd thought scoffing and acting fed up with people was his thing.

"I don't know why you're sitting here trying to kill me if he's the one annoying you." Sasuke told the death obsessed kid.

 _Try and steal my style, and you'll get what's coming to you, Dobe._

Or not, Sasuke thought as the idiot kept trying to impale him with poorly made sand spikes. He sighed wistfully; no one ever did what he wanted. Maybe he was just sending out the wrong vibe, but then again, vibes and auras were for hippies and emos. He prayed to Nakano that he wasn't either of those.

"While this has been the most exciting thing to happen since we left Kiri, it's still not that great." Sakura said. "This kid couldn't hit a giant sign that says "kick me" at the rate he's going. Can't we teach him something? Maybe then we'd be able to see him kill a couple people."

"If we are going to teach him, we have to give him a name." Hinata said. "I don't want to refer to him as 'the kid that wants to kill everyone'. It seems like we know too many people with that mindset, and we'd just call three different people over saying that."

There were shrugs and murmurs of agreement about that statement. Then, everyone got into an argument about what they would name the-kid-that-wanted-to-kill-everyone. Naruto wanted to call him origami, since it sounded like Shinigami. That was immediately ruled out. Sakura wanted to name him Giflett, which was also quickly discarded. Haku had wanted to name Shini, since it also sounded like Shinigami, but didn't mention it because of Naruto's failed attempt.

They almost named him Fred. Hinata had suggested it, and they all agreed it had been catchy. However, they soon discovered that Fred wouldn't answer to his name. In the end, they went with Sasuke's suggestion and dubbed him Gaara.

They soon found out that Gaara had no chakra control. Actually, he had no control whatsoever. Hinata said that it was like his brain didn't have the filter that everyone else's did. He said what he wanted, did what he wanted, and thought what he wanted without a second thought. It had actually taken them a while to get Gaara to stop trying to kill them, and they had to promise him that he could try to kill them later if he wanted to.

Anko had, yet again, not been able to find anyone of the seal master variety, and had, yet again, impaled a kid's pet. This one was a snake though, and she had felt a bit of remorse afterwards, but not too much. Zabuza hadn't been any help either, in fact, he'd hindered her.

It was always something with him. "There's a couple assassins trying to kill me, give me a couple seconds". "There's the Kazekage, he doesn't like me, we need to take the long way". "That man's haircut is disgusting, I want to kill him". She may have also been thinking that last one on the inside. When Zabuza's back was turned, she had pierced the ugly man's jugular.

When she found her kids, she groaned. There was another one with them, and they were yet again laughing and talking at a ramen stand. Even though she'd been through the entire village, and there were no ramen stands.

The new one had red hair and a giant gourd strapped to his back. There was also no one around them, and anyone close enough to see the kids gave them wide-eyed, terrified looks. Most of them were directed to the new Uzumaki; she just knew they'd let the idiot into their clan, while a couple others were directed at Sakura. She smiled as she noticed the general populace's horrified looks. She had been raising the kiddies well.

"Well," she said when she'd arrived to stand next to Hinata. "You all have fun while I was gone?"

"Yep!" was the general reply she received. The new kid didn't answer, but she figured it was to be expected. A beautiful young lady such as herself could be very intimidating at times.

"We're going to have to move on again, my pretties! The sword-obsessed idiot couldn't help me find a seal master after all." besider her, Zabuza growled. She merely looked over at him with a dango stick in her hand. There was a general sound of protest from the children in front of her, but it was quickly quelled by one of her snake-summons.

"Where are we going now? I'm getting rather bored of walking around, waiting for you to find this seal master of yours." Anko said to Zabuza.

"Why don't you just go back to Konoha? Unlike the pathetic girl, that one shows up again every once in a while." She was about to reply, but was interrupted by the kids. Maybe she should start sending the ones that had paralysis in their poison at them.

"BYE GAARA!" they all screamed as one, deafening her. The sound was enough to dispel her snake, which was now just a bit of smoke.

"What the he- heck brats!?" Zabuza snarled, once again refraining from cursing in front of them. "Why don't you just take the stupid idiot home with you?" Naruto's eyes widened, and he beamed.

"You really mean it sensei? We can keep him? That's great! We can teach him how to control his chakra better, and then he can show us how to control sand the same way he does. And then we can all teach him how to pull pranks. And then he he can show us some weird desert food to make at the Uzumaki Stand for the shinobi who are there for the chunin exams!Then, you can teach us a bunch of cool ninja tricks, and let us play with your sword, an-" Naruto fell to the ground, unconscious, from where Zabuza had hit a nerve.

"Never, will a single one of you touch Kubikiribocho, unless I am using it to kill you." All the other Uzumaki's glared up at him.

"Only we get to beat Naruto up!" Sakura growled up at him. She made a move to hit him, but Anko was quicker. Before Zabuza knew it, he was on the ground, severely winded, and flat on his back.

"Don't mess with my kiddies." She said, then went over to Naruto. Zabuza looked over at Hinata, who appeared to be the most normal of the group.

"Is she single?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," Hinata replied. "I haven't seen her with anybody for a year or two. And no one else I've been stalking has mentioned anything."


	13. Chapter 12

"And just where have you four been?" Iruka asked, his voice dangerously low. The four children in question kept their gaze on the floor, and shuffled their feet nervously.

"Well, ya see, Sensei," Naruto began.

"No. I really don't see." Iruka moves his face right in front of theirs, going to an even more threatening position than the looming he had previously been doing.

"Anko gave me a report that told me all about your little stunt. And after reading it, I must say that I am extremely disappointed. Do you four have anything to say for yourselves? Because if so, it had better say it now."

"Umm…"

"Well…"

"Uhhh…"

"Congrats on getting three new classmates Sensei!"

"Say what now?" Iruka asked, turning over to Naruto.

"Well, we picked up Gaara and Haku along the way, and they need ninja training, yea? So you gotta teach 'em!"

"But you said three students. Who the heck is the third?" Iruka questioned. "The only other person mention in the report was… No. you can't be serious."

"Come on, Zabuza's not that bad. Sure, he's got the funny bandaid mask, and the weird ripped up clothes, but besides being a fashion disaster, I think he's pretty cool."

"Don't forget the blood Naruto," Sakura instructed. "He always has a lot of blood around. That's one of his best qualities in my opinion."

"I will not be teaching Zabuza of the Freaking Bloody Mist!" Iruka yelled at them, his head seeming to suddenly enlarge to twice its size.

"Of course not Sensei!" Naruto agreed. "You'll be teaching with him. Ya see, Jiji couldn't get him instated into the Anbu straight away, cause Danzo's a jerk, and he needs a job if he's gonna be allowed to stay in the village. He refused to work at our awesome Uzumaki Stand, so we stuck him with a bunch of sniveling academy brats instead."

Iruka was about to yell again when someone knocked on the door.

"Come in!" He called out cheerfully, his demeanor changing so quickly it was scary. The door opened and the old lady that was the school's secretary peeked her head through.

"Iruka-san, you've got a err. You've got a uh… A teaching buddy. He's waiting out in the hall."

"A teaching buddy? What the hell kinda crap is that?" A voiced growled from out in the hall.

"Mr. Momochi, language!"

"You mean Mr. Uzumaki!" Hinata called over to the lady helpfully.

"Yes, of course," she replied dryly. "Whatever, he's your problem now. Deal with it."

"Thank you Ms. Yukada," Iruka sighed as the door closed behind her. It opened again to reveal none other than the Uzumaki's favorite evil menace.

"Yay! It's Zabuza-sensei!" Sakura ran over and grabbed the man by his leg. "I missed you boo!"

"Get off me brat!" Zabuza snarled, shaking his leg in an attempt to dislodge the pink haired child currently attached to the limb.

"I wanna do that too!" Naruto whined, racing over to join Sakura.

"Get off my Senpai! He's mine!"

"No way! I'm the one that wanted to invite Zabuza-sama in the first place!"

"I am not your Senpai you little freak!"

"ENOUGH" Iruka shouted, causing everyone to freeze in place. Sasuke was, for some reason, walking up the wall, and Hinata was nowhere to be seen.

"All of you are going to quiet down and get ready for class. We are absolutely going to have a normal day in here, filled with great fun and learning. There will be no more interruptions. You four kids, get to your seats. Zabuza, you're coming with me to help with papers."

"Do I look like I want to push a pen around all day?"

Iruka glared at him menacingly, KI leaking out into the room. Zabuza ducked his head and made his way to over to the desk, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like curse words.

"Stupid crazy Konoha. I miss Kiri, there at least you got praised for killing people," he mumbled.

"What was that?" Iruka asked him in a cheery tone.

"Nothing," the demon bit out.

The rest of the day proceeded as normal, just like Iruka had wanted it to. Glue ended up on the windows, and a couple new holes were added onto the wall. Outside, the playground was a lovely new shade of hot pink and orange, and the trees were all beautifully burnt and mangled. The Uzumaki's were a particularly artistic clan.

The children all went over to the Uzumaki Stand that night feeling quite contented. Sasuke had been able to practice his stealth, Naruto had pulled pranks, Hinata had snuck off in the middle of class to do… something, and Sakura had managed to trick Zabuza into signing an apprenticeship paper. All in all, a pretty good day for the Uzumaki's.

Gaara and Haku were working the stand, since they wouldn't be able to actually join classes for a week or so. A few people had sent complaints back to the new chefs about there being sand in their food, or it being too cold, but after Gaara had sent the first guy to the hospital they had soon found all complaints turning into compliments.

"See, they were born to be Uzumaki's!" Hinata said proudly.

Anko, who had become their most common patron, and was there everyday, snorted.

"They still need a bit of work. My dango wasn't as good as it usually is."

"That's because Sasuke wasn't there to cook it. We always have him make your food for you, since he's still the best cook of us all," Sakura supplied.

Anko merely shrugged, turning back to her now nearly empty plate of dango. Naruto, taking advantage of her sugar induced happiness, came over to the snake summoner and pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. It looked a lot like the one Sakura had been carrying around all day, hugging lovingly.

"Hey, Anko, would you please sign this paper? Sakura got Zabuza-sama to be her sensei, and I need one too! Pretty please teach me! I can't let my underlings become better than their clan head! That's just not right!"

"Well kid," she said, popping the last biscuit into her mouth, "I'd like to, I really would. I like this little thing you got goin' with your clan. 'Specially Pinky, she's got a good thing going on. Thing is, I'm still looking for a seal master to make the old man feel better, and can't really do anything right now to help ya."

The kids all looked over at each other, frowning in confusion.

"Why are you still looking for one," Hinata asked her, "We had a guy show up just the other day who was a seal master."

"Jiraiya of the Sannin," Sasuke supplied. "Seal master, spy master, toad sage, the Yondaime's sensei, famous author, Naruto's godfather, and pervert extraordinaire. Not to mention being a stupid crying drunk, currently collapsed on our couch."

Anko tilted her head at Sasuke quizzically. "You do realize at least one of those things was an S class secret, right? I mean, it's true and all, but not too many people are supposed to know about it. I myself only learned after actually flirting with the stupid old man." She smirked at him, "You didn't do that too, did you? I mean, I thought sensei was the only pedophile in the group, but I could maybe see the man swinging that way…"

"No way," Sasuke scoffed. "I just pretended to be the guy for a day. You'd be surprised how many people you can fool with a simple henge."

"So now you have a seal master to do whatever you needed him for!" Naruto announce happily. "That means you can be my sensei now! Just sign here."

Anko laughed, but took the pen anyway, writing her name on the bottom of the page. Hinata smiled from behind all her friends, looking at the place she had snuck her name onto the paper as well. Not that any of them knew it. Now she'd get even more time to hang out with Naruto.

—

"Sa' wa' nuh?" An obviously intoxicated voice asked. What looked to be the Third Hokage looked down on the toad sannin with a look of exasperation.

"Just sign this paper," the 'Hokage' sighed, reaching into his pocket for his pipe, setting it alight with a simple fire jutsu. Jiraiya took the proffered pen, scribbling his nearly illegible name onto the bottom of the paper before promptly passing out again.

Sasuke smirked as he released the henge, glad that he had managed to find a way to make it physical. Even a drunk Jiraiya would have been able to see through something as simple as a henge genjutsu.

"He smells disgusting." Gaara commented in a monotone beside him. "Can I kill him?"

"No. He's your sensei now, which means he's going to teach you how to kill more people than you already can. Don't you want to learn that?"

"But mother wants his blood…" Gaara objected. Sasuke nearly facepalmed as he heard the boy refer to the Ichibi as his mother yet again. He was going to get that looked at soon as the idiot slobbering on his couch woke up.

"But don't you want to kill other people too? He's one of the best out there, and he could teach you how to be the best too. You could even get strong enough to kill your father. Doesn't that sound like fun?" Sasuke asked.

"Mother likes that idea," Gaara admitted. "Maybe she and father had a fight before she died. I think he cheated on her," he said, a hint of anger making its way into his otherwise emotionless voice, "I will kill father for her."

"Good," Sasuke said, patting the boy on his back briefly. "Now I need to go find the others, wait here Gaara." He shunshined out of the room, having used his sharingan that was awakened during the massacre to copy it from one of the many ninja who used the technique to move even a single step.

He found Naruto, Sakura, and Haku all working at the Uzumaki Stand, with Zabuza growling at them every other minute. He told them to meet him back at the main house, and after threatening them all with accumulated blackmail on their respective crushes, Zabuza included, he went to get Hinata. She was in the psych ward of the hospital, her usual intel gathering site, and agreed to meet with them all after she was finished listening to all the crazy ex-ANBU's mutterings.

"We need to get Tsunade to return to Konoha," he said, once they were all gathered.

"Isn't she off the grid?" Naruto asked.

"She's supposed to be, but Hinata and I have found her. The hard part wasn't finding her, it's convincing her to come back."

"She has been traumatized by loss, and associates Konoha with all the bad things that have happened to her," Hinata supplemented, adding her knowledge to Sasuke's. "We're going to need to convince her that some of her grandfather's 'Will of Fire' still exists."

Zabuza snorted derisively. "It can't be that hard. Just show her that little blonde headed menace you call a leader, and you'll come back with her and three other S class missing nin."

"We don't need any other S rank missing nin," Sakura said, "we have you Senpai!"

"I can't go," Naruto said sadly, "Anko-sensei said that she's going to be training me even in my sleep now that I'm her apprentice. You'll have to go without me."

"I don't want to go," Gaara said, cutting off their chances of bringing him along as well.

"There's no way in hell that I'm going after that crazy lady," Zabuza told him, "I've heard she's even more bloodthirsty than most girls when she's mad. And from what I've seen of women, that's something to be feared."

"If Zabuza-senpai isn't going, then I won't either!" Sakura announced, puffing her cheeks out in the same manner as that as two year old.

"Am I seriously going to be stuck going after her myself?" Sasuke asked them all, annoyed.

"What about Hinata?" Naruto asked.

"She's going to be busy studying with you and Anko. She slipped her name on the contract you got Anko to sign, so you've got a training buddy," he explained. "Is there actually not a single one of you that can go?"

"I can," someone spoke quietly. Sasuke turned to see someone who could have been a boy or a girl who looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn't quite remember their name.

"Why would you want to go?" he asked, wondering why a complete stranger was in their meeting. The boy's/girl's face turned a bit red, and their eyes immediately turned to the floor.

"I would like to learn about medicine. I want to be able to protect my precious people. Tsunade is the world's most renown medic, and I wish to learn something from her."

"That's awesome Haku!" Naruto said, giving the kid a big thumbs up. "You are the embodiment of the true Uzumaki spirit!" There were nods of agreement from all of them. Sasuke nodded too, but that was because he had remembered who the kid was. He still wasn't sure if the person was a boy or a girl though.

"Alright," Sasuke said, turning to Haku, who's face once again turned a bit red. "You and I will go and find Tsunade, and try to convince her to come back to Konoha. If that doesn't work, then we'll try to convince her to become our sensei. Which means she'll have to come back to Konoha anyway, since we are required to come back eventually. It won't be any detriment to us anyway, since our goal in bringing her back is to become her students."

The meeting broke apart soon after that, and the assembled Uzumaki's all dispersed to find their respective sensei's and train. Sasuke was left staying with the boy/girl who's name he had yet again forgotten.

"So when do you think you'll be ready to go?" He asked.

—

"So when do you think you'll be ready to go?" Sasuke asked. Haku started at being spoken to directly. After Haku had been adopted into the clan, they'd stopped talking to the ice wielder. It was only Zabuza-sama that spoke to Haku, as it always had been. But now Sasuke was addressing Haku, and the child felt flustered, being unused to the attention.

"I should be ready to go by tomorrow." Of course, Haku was ready to go right now, but was unsure that was the answer Sasuke was wanting. Something told Haku that the boy needed some time to get a couple things ready. There was something in his black eyes that looked like wariness, like he was getting ready for a battle. Haku reflected dimly that those eyes were very pretty. The boy looked almost as pretty as Haku did, not that that would ever be mentioned.

"Good. I'll get the Hokage's permission to leave again, and try to think of a way to make sure Iruka doesn't find out until we're too far away. You are able to hold your own in a fight, if it comes to that, right?" Those onyx eyes met Haku's brown ones, which were quickly brought back to the ground, heat blooming across the ice maker's face.

What's wrong with me? Haku wondered, having never experienced something like this before.

"Zabuza-sama has told me that I am quite proficient when it comes to attacking and defending," was the shaky reply Sasuke received. He nodded absentmindedly, already heading out the door.

Haku breathed a small sigh of relief once Sasuke was gone, hoping that the odd symptoms wouldn't continue the entire time they searched for the slug sannin together. Which of course, only meant that they would.

—

Author's Note:

If it feels like I used Haku's name too many times in that last part, it was on purpose. I'm not wanting to reveal the kid's gender yet. I'm just going to leave it up to your imaginations until I decide on the right moment to tell you all. I didn't want to use androgynous pronouns, because that might lead some people to believe that Haku was gender neutral, which is not true. Haku's gender will be revealed later on, until then you guys can make it whichever one you want in your head.


End file.
